Lot Essay
Cf. A similar example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, signed Shiomi Masanari (illustrated in Edward F. Strange's Catalogue of Japanese Lacquer, Part 1, General, London 1924, no. 52, pl. XIV)
The two Chinese Taoist monks, Han Shan and Shih Te, lived in the monastery of Kuo Ching, where they are said to have spent much of their time in the kitchen, speaking an unintelligible gibberish and treating visitors with a wide variety of insults, and their eccentricity, appealing to Japanese taste, has made them a favourite subject in art.
The two Chinese Taoist monks, Han Shan and Shih Te, lived in the monastery of Kuo Ching, where they are said to have spent much of their time in the kitchen, speaking an unintelligible gibberish and treating visitors with a wide variety of insults, and their eccentricity, appealing to Japanese taste, has made them a favourite subject in art.