SIGNED KAJIKAWA BUNRYUSAI, EDO PERIOD (LATE 17TH CENTURY)

Details

AN EARLY FOUR-CASE INRO
Signed KAJIKAWA BUNRYUSAI, EDO PERIOD (LATE 17TH CENTURY)
The kuro-nuri ground decorated in silver, black, brown and gold takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, gold and silver kirikane, raden hirazogan, togidashi-e, kirikane, nashiji, kin-fun, gin-fun, heidatsu, and tsukegaki with, on the face, a fox-priest leaning on a staff amid autumn grasses, including ominaeshi, hagi, suzuki and kikyo beside a stream beneath the moon, and on the reverse a bow-trap, with a mouse, almost invisible amid the grasses
7.7cm.

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Lot Essay

Kajikawa Bunryusai worked for the Tokugawa shogunate in the latter years of the 17th century and was the most famous of this renowned family of lacquer artists. As guardians of the rice kura [store house], foxes were no doubt particularly aware of the danger of mice.

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