UNSIGNED, EDO/MEIJI PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Details

A SUZURIBAKO [BOX FOR WRITING-UTENSILS] WITH UKIYO-E DESIGNS
Unsigned, Edo/Meiji Period (19th century)
With rounded corners and overhanging lid; decoration in gold, silver and multicoloured togidashi-e; the top of the lid with a ground of okibirame [individually-positioned gold flakes] on a black lacquer ground; the interior and base with conventional hirame [gold flakes] on a black lacquer ground; the exterior with a group of fashionably dressed men and women admiring the ema [votive panels] hanging at a temple or shrine; the interior of the lid with a group of children watching a nozoki karakuri ningyo [peepshow puppet] show telling the story of the shinju [love suicide] of Osome and Hisamatsu; the interior panel with four more figures; the inkstone and waterdropper missing; the rims and sides gold lacquer
1½ x 8 x 8 5/8in. (3.8 x 20.3 x 21.9cm.)

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The love suicide of Osome, daughter of the oil-dealer Tarobei, and his apprentice Hisamatsu formed the basis of several puppet and kabuki plays. The design of this box is probably taken from an illustrated book by the well-known Kyoto-based painter and pornographer Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1751).1; for the identification of one such design on a sakazuki, see Joe Earle, 'What Shall We Do About Japanese Lacquer?', Orientations, 17/12, December 1986, pp. 53-60, fig. 11.

1 Osumi Kazuo and others (ed.), Nihon kaku densho jinmei jiten [A dictionary of fictional and traditional Japanese personalities] (Tokyo, 1986), p. 120.

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