Antique Japanese low table in keyaki wood, of rectangular framed top and four legs with scrolled feet in the Ming idiom. It originates from Japan, from the Meiji period (1868–1912), when keyaki — Japanese zelkova — was worked in Kyoto and Nagoya to produce domestic furniture of serene proportions.
The Japanese low table, called zataku, was for centuries the centre of life on tatami: the family gathered around it to eat, read or work seated on the floor. The more substantial examples, like this one, were reserved for the bourgeois homes of the Meiji period, when the taste for Ming Chinese forms — recovered through furniture treatises — filtered into the repertoire of Japanese cabinetmakers.
The top is built in a single sheet of well-figured keyaki, set into a moulded frame that acts as edge and finish. The lower structure is mortise-and-tenon joined, without metalwork, and rests on four squared legs ending in a scrolled foot, characteristic of the Ming vocabulary. The perimeter apron, plain and clean, reinforces the rail without recourse to relief.
The patina is warm and quiet: the keyaki shows its natural figure — drawn fibres, tiny knots, light marks of use across the top — and the feet show wear typical of a floor piece. The original oil-and-wax finish keeps a low, deep sheen.
It sits naturally in japandi, wabi-sabi or contemporary minimal interiors. It works as a coffee table in front of a low sofa, as an auxiliary table at the foot of a bed, or as a base on which to compose a large ceramic, a tea tray or a stack of books, where the scrolled foot adds the only ornamental note.
Details
- Dimensions: Length 116 cm – Width 88 cm – Height 27 cm
- Style: Japanese in Ming idiom, Meiji period
- Materials and techniques: Solid keyaki (Japanese zelkova); traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery; oil-and-wax finish.
- Place of origin: Japan
- Period: Meiji period (1868–1912)
- Date of manufacture: Circa 1900
- Condition: Good. Wear consistent with age and use.
This piece is part of the curated collection of Amaru Antiques, Barcelona.
ONE OF A KIND PIECE
