Sotheby’s Hong Kong staged one of the most successful Asian art auctions of 2025 with its first dedicated sale from the Okada Museum of Art last year, where all 125 lots sold and realised more than HK$688 million (US$88.4 million).
Nearly a year on, Sotheby’s returned with a second instalment from the same collection. Of 187 lots offered, just four failed to find buyers, achieving a 98% sell-through rate and a total of HK$174.7 million (US$22.3 million).
Bidding was again spirited, with many works climbing to multiples of their estimates. Leading the sale was a Southern Song Jizhou tenmoku tea bowl with paper-cut phoenix decoration, formerly in the collection of the fifth Tokugawa shogun. Estimated at HK$500,000, it soared to HK$10.6 million (US$1.4 million), setting a new auction record for Jizhou ware.
Lot 2026 | A Jizhou 'papercut' 'phoenix' tenmoku bowl
Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Diameter: 15 cm
Provenance:
- Gifted by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉, 1646–1709) to Tokugawa Mitsusada (徳川光貞, 1627–1705), according to the box inscription
- Collection of Hirase Roko (平瀨露香, 1839–1908), Osaka, and passed down through the Hirase family
- Daisansai Hirase-ka Zōki Balikodai-tsuke [The Third Hirase Family Collection Auction Catalogue with Prices], 1906, sold to Harumi, likely Tojiro Harumi (春海藤次郎, 1840–1910), for 4,600 gold yen
- Collection of Eishun Nakamura (中村榮俊, 1908–1978), by 1968
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$400,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: HK$8,300,000
Sold: HK$10,624,000
According to the bowl's inscription, it was a gift from Tsunayoshi, the fifth Tokugawa shogun, to Mitsusada, head of one of the Tokugawa clan's three most noble branch families.
Tsunayoshi ruled Japan during a time of peace, prosperity, and remarkable cultural growth, yet he is perhaps best remembered for a sarcastic nickname: the “Dog Shogun.”
A reforming ruler shaped by Confucian and Buddhist thought, Tsunayoshi sought to temper the martial culture of the preceding era through the Edicts on Compassion for Living Things – a series of laws protecting the vulnerable, from abandoned infants and the elderly to stray animals.
His dog-protection measures became especially famous. Tsunayoshi built expansive kennels in Edo, the shogunate’s capital, banned the killing of dogs, and introduced systems for their registration and care. Humane in intention, the laws could be extremely severe in enforcement, including capital punishment in some cases.
The bowl’s inscription records it as a gift from Tokugawa Tsunayoshi to Tokugawa Mitsusada
Though Jizhou ware was not traditionally among China’s most celebrated ceramics, it acquired a different kind of prestige in Japan. Carried there through trade and the travels of Buddhist monks, such pieces were admired in Japanese tea culture as karamono – imported Chinese goods eagerly collected by the aristocracy.
Their appeal was rooted in the Song dynasty’s (960-1279) deeply cultivated tea culture, where tea was served at banquets, offered to guests as a mark of hospitality, and competed over in elaborate tasting contests.
The ideal brew was prized above all for its whiteness, while the thick foam was judged by how well it clung to the walls of the bowl. To show this to best advantage, Song drinkers favoured bowls with deep, dark glazes – black, brown, and rich amber – which heightened the contrast with the pale tea.
Song-dynasty painting Doujiang Tu depicting a tea-tasting contest | Heilongjiang Provincial Museum
The Jizhou kilns stood in what is now Ji'an county, Jiangxi province, in southern China. Active from the late Tang dynasty, they reached their height during the Southern Song before gradually declining under the Yuan. Among the many wares they produced, they are best known for vessels with dark, iron-rich glazes.
Their most celebrated innovation was paper-cut resist decoration, the technique used on the record-breaking bowl. Potters applied paper cuts – often in phoenix or plum blossom patterns – over a dark base glaze, then added a lighter glaze over the top. Once the paper was removed and the vessel fired, the design appeared in contrasting tones, further transformed by the kiln’s atmosphere and heat.
Alongside paper-cut designs, Jizhou kilns produced leaf impressions, carved decoration, tortoiseshell and partridge-feather glazes, making it one of the most inventive centres of the Song period.
A paper-cut resist-decorated Jizhou bottle vase, Southern Song dynasty | Sold: US$1,085,000, Christie's New York, 2018
National Treasure tenmoku tea bowl with tortoise shell pattern | Collection of Shokoku-ji Temple
Before this sale, the auction record for Jizhou ware belonged to a Southern Song long-necked vase decorated with tortoiseshell glaze and paper-cut twin phoenixes.
Once owned by the 17th-century tea master Sen Sōtan, it was preserved in Japanese collections for centuries and was formerly registered as an Important Art Object in Japan. Released from the renowned Linyushanren Collection in 2016, the vase sold at Christie’s New York for nearly US$1.1 million.
Japan still preserves some of the finest known Jizhou wares, including the tenmoku tea bowl with tortoise shell pattern and scattered floral decoration, which is designated a National Treasure.
Jizhou tea bowls have long ranked below the top tier of early Chinese ceramics at auction. With the category now crossing the HK$10 million threshold for the first time, whether this prompts a broader reappraisal remains to be seen.
The Okada Museum of Art was founded by Japanese casino magnate Kazuo Okada
Kazuo Okada
Sotheby’s first dedicated sale of works from the Okada Museum of Art, held last year, realised more than HK$688 million. The second instalment brought about HK$174 million, taking the combined total for the two sales to HK$863 million (US$111 million).
In both catalogues, Sotheby’s stated that the works were consigned by an agent of the court-appointed receivers over the shares of Okada Fine Art Limited, acting under Hong Kong High Court orders dated 24 October 2023 and 29 April 2025.
The museum opened in 2013 in a hot-spring resort area in Hakone, and was founded by Kazuo Okada, the Japanese gaming magnate known as the “Pachinko King”. A former partner of Steve Wynn, Okada co-founded Wynn Resorts in 2002, but their relationship later collapsed into a long-running legal battle. The dispute eventually ended in a US$2.6 billion settlement, though Okada subsequently lost a separate fight over a US$50 million legal fee owed to his U.S. law firm.
Some reports have linked the Sotheby’s auctions directly to that legal debt, while others suggest the proceedings may also be tied to disputes within Okada’s own family.
Other Highlight Lots:
Lot 2011 | A finely carved Yaozhou celadon 'peony' ewer
Five Dynasties – Northern Song dynasty
Height: 19.5 cm
Provenance:
- Uragami Sokyu-do Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$300,000 - 600,000
Hammer Price: HK$6,500,000
Sold: HK$8,320,000
Lot 2106 | Four carved wood figures modelled as the Four Heavenly Kings (Shitenno)
Kamakura period, 13th century
Height: 39.9 - 41 cm
Provenance:
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$300,000 - 400,000
Hammer Price: HK$5,100,000
Sold: HK$6,528,000
Lot 2025 | A large carved Dingyao 'peony' lobed bowl
Northern Song dynasty
Diameter: 24.5 cm
Provenance:
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$400,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: HK$4,200,000
Sold: HK$5,376,000
Lot 2002 | A rare amber-glazed figure of a dog
Tang dynasty
Height: 25.4 cm
Provenance:
- Collection of Marquis Hosokawa Moritatsu (1883–1970), Tokyo, by 1928
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
- Uragami Sokyu-do Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$150,000 - 300,000
Hammer Price: HK$4,100,000
Sold: HK$5,248,000
Lot 2099 | Attributed to the Hasegawa School | Waves and rocks, ink, colour, gold and gofun on paper
Edo period, 17th century
179.5 x 385.8 cm
Provenance:
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$200,000 - 300,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,200,000
Sold: HK$4,096,000
Lot 2006 | Attributed to the Hasegawa school | A Boat Cast Adrift (Ukifune), ink, colour, gold and gofun on paper
Momoyama - Edo period, early 17th century
169 x 370.2 cm
Estimate: HK$150,000 - 250,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,000,000
Sold: HK$3,840,000
Lot 2163 | Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942) | Irises, ink, colour, gold and silver on silk
Taisho - Showa period, early 20th century
97.5 x 240 cm
Estimate: HK$80,000 - 100,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,800,000
Sold: HK$3,584,000
Lot 2009 | A flame-style earthenware deep vessel
Middle Jomon period, 3500 - 2500 BCE
Height: 35 cm
Estimate: HK$200,000 - 300,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,600,000
Sold: HK$3,328,000
Lot 2117 | Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828) | The Jewel River at Chofu (Chofu no Tamagawa), ink, colour, gold and gofun on silk
Edo period, dated Kinoto mi shoto (10th month in the Year of the Wood Snake [1785])
71 x 27.8 cm
Provenance:
- Louis Gonse (1846-1921)
- Christie’s, Japanese and Korean Art, 23 March 2004, Lot 117
Estimate: HK$300,000 - 400,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,400,000
Sold: HK$3,072,000
Lot 2107 | A blue and white 'lotus pond' vase, meiping
Ming dynasty, 15th century
Height: 37.5 cm
Provenance:
- Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo
- A Japanese private collection
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$600,000 - 1,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,400,000
Sold: HK$3,072,000
Lot 2019 | A stoneware dish
Signed Kenzan sei sho and Hokkyo Korin and kao [cursive monogram], Kenzan ware, Kyoto, early 18th century
21.7 x 21.7 x 2.8 cm
Estimate: HK$60,000 - 80,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,900,000
Sold: HK$2,432,000
Lot 2061 | A sancai figure of a female polo player
Tang dynasty
Length: 34.5 cm
Provenance:
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$150,000 - 300,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,500,000
Sold: HK$1,920,000
Lot 2111 | Nishimura Hikobei VIII (1887-1965) and Segawa Shoryu (active early 20th century) | A Zohiko lacquer ryoshibako [document box] and suzuribako [writing box] ensuite
Meiji - Showa period, late 19th - early 20th century
15.7 x 35.5 x 43 cm
Estimate: HK$100,000 - 150,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,100,000
Sold: HK$1,408,000
Lot 2027 | An earthenware figure modelled as pregnant woman, dogu
Late Jomon period, 2000 - 1000 BCE
Height: 20.1 cm
Provenance:
- Excavated at Saitama Prefecture
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$150,000 - 250,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,100,000
Sold: HK$1,408,000
Lot 2005 | A Haniwa earthenware figure of a woman
Late Kofun period, 5th - 6th century
Height: 74 cm
Provenance:
- Excavated at Takasai-mura, Ibaraki Prefecture
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd
Estimate: HK$200,000 - 300,000
Hammer Price: HK$950,000
Sold: HK$1,216,000
Lot 2013 | A Haniwa model of a horse
Kofun period, 5th - 6th century
Height: 101.5 cm
Provenance:
- Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Estimate: HK$100,000 - 150,000
Hammer Price: HK$500,000
Sold: HK$640,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sale: Masterpieces of Asian Art from the Okada Museum of Art II
Date: 4 September 2026
Number of Lots: 187
Sold: 183
Unsold: 4
Sale Rate: 98%
Sale Total: HK$174,727,680 (US$22.3 million)