A THREE-CASE INRO

WITH SIGNATURE HARA YOYUSAI (EDO), EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Details

A THREE-CASE INRO
With Signature Hara Yoyusai (Edo), Edo Period (19th Century)
With shibuichi-nuri ground; decoration in gold and silver takamaki-e; compartments and risers gold nashiji; shoulders and rims gold lacquer; signed in gold hiramaki-e underneath Yoyusai and on one side Hoitsu Kishin hitsu [drawing by Hoitsu Kishin]; wood kagamibuta netsuke with gold disc engraved with setsugekka [snow, moon and flowers], with signature Natsuo; silver ojime with a goose and reeds

Winter landscape with snow-laden shrubs under an almost full moon; on the reverse, a spray of blossom
2in. (7cm.) long

Provenance

Charles A. Greenfield Collection

Literature

Eskenazi Limited, The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer (London, 1990), cat. no. 59
Andrew J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection (New York, 1980), cat. no. 59, fig. 73
Harold P. Stern, The Magnificent Three: Lacquer, Netsuke and Tsuba (New York, 1972), no. 134 (inro)

Exhibited

New York, 1972, Japan House Gallery
New York, 1980, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lot Essay

Hara Yoyusai (1772-1845) often used designs by the Edo Rinpa painter Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828) whose signature is here incorporated in the design; the relationship between the two artists is fully explored in Okano Tomoko, 'Sakai Hoitsu shita-e: "Tsuru-umemodoki mejiro maki-e jikubon" o megutte [The designs of Sakai Hoitsu: a scroll-tray with maki-e design of staff-tree and white-eye]', Tokyo-to Edo Tokyo Hakubutsukan Kenkyu Hokoku [Journal of Edo-Tokyo Studies], 1 (Oct. 1995), pp. 103-131.

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