A KOBAKO [SMALL BOX]

EDO/MEIJI PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Details

A KOBAKO [SMALL BOX]
Edo/Meiji Period (19th Century)
Of rounded rectangular form with flush-fitting domed lid, interior fitted tray and bracket feet; black lacquer ground; decoration in various shades of gold hiramaki-e with details in red and black lacquer and shell; interior and the base of the tray sparse gold nashiji; rims gold lacquer

Sprays of shinobu [hare's-foot fern] with four fireflies (two on the lid, two on the tray)
2.3/8 x 4.3/8 x 2in. (6.0 x 11.1 x 7.0cm.)

Provenance

Jan Dees Collection

Lot Essay

Hotaru [fireflies] often symbolise the souls of the departed, while the shinobu or shinobugusa [Davallia bullata] stands for remembrance of a loved one. A favourite subject in lacquer, shinobu is the theme of a famous poem by Kawara no Sadaijin (822-95), son of the Emperor Saga and one of the Sanjurokkasen [Thirty-Six Great Poets], which was included in the love-poem section of Kokinwakashu [A Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems] (905) and also appears in a slightly different version in two other collections1

Michinoku no Like a patterned cloth
shinobu mochizuri tangle-dyed in Shinobu
tare yue ni in the farthest north -
midaresomenishi it must be because of you
ware nara naku ni that my heart is in turmoil

1 Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [Kyoto National Museum], Nihon no isho [Japanese Classical Literature as the Theme in Crafts ] (Kyoto, 1978), no. 89; Saeki Umetomo (ed.), Kokinwakashu [A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern] (Tokyo, 1958), no. 724; Joshua S. Mostow, Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image (Honolulu, 1996), no. 14

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