EDO PERIOD (EARLY 19TH CENTURY), SIGNED KOMA KANSAI AND WITH CURSIVE MONOGRAM (KAO)

Details

A two-case lacquer inro
Edo period (early 19th century), signed Koma Kansai and with cursive monogram (kao)
The large round inro decorated in hiramaki-e, takamaki-e and togidashi in gold, silver, red and black with scenes from the Chushingura (Treasury of loyal retainers) against a roiro ground; with thirty-four of the forty-seven ronin, their names inscribed on the lapels of their jackets, surrounding two mother-of-pearl-trimmed roundels (one on each side), carrying out their famous night attack on Kira Kozuke no suke Yoshinaka, who had engineered the suicide of their lord, Asano Takumi no kami Naganori; in the roundel on one side, seven of the ronin are shown about to break down the doors of the compound while on the other side another six ronin capture Lord Kira and prepare to strike off his head; the risers lacquered in togidashi with a variety of weapons and other military accoutrements together with the kiri (paulownia) mon, the futatsudomoe (two-comma) mon and the takanoha (hawks' feathers) mon of the Asano family in togidashi, the interior gyobu-nashiji; with a two-piece lacquer netsuke of a Noh mask and brocade storage bag, the reverse of the mask signed Kansai and with agate ojime
4 1/8in. (10.5cm.) long

Provenance

Lt. Col. J. B. Gaskell Collection
Victor Rienaecker Collection
Demaree and Dorothy Bess Collection
Charles A. Greenfield Collection
Netsuke ex coll. W. L. Behrens

Literature

The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer (London: Eskenazi Ltd., 1990), cat. no. 97.
Glendening and Co., auction catalogue of the Lt. Col. J. B. Gaskell Collection (London, 1919), no. 1327.
Andrew J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980), cat. no. 97, fig. 110.
Harold P. Stern, The Magnificent Three: Lacquer, Netsuke and Tsuba from the Collection of Charles A. Greenfield (New York: Japan Society, 1972), cat. no. 147 (inro) (color).

Exhibited

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

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

This most celebrated and politically significant of Edo-period tales was immortalized in the ever-popular kabuki play Kanadehon Chushingura (first produced in 1748), which places the events of the early eighteenth century in the medieval period. The designs on this inro are apparently based on the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), who produced a large number of prints depicting scenes from the story in the middle years of the nineteenth century. For another circular inro possibly by Koma Kansai depicting the death of the Buddha, see Julia Meech, Lacquerware from the Weston Collection: A Selection of Inro and Boxes (New York, 1995), cat. no. 36.

Previously sold Christie's, London, Netsuke & Lacquer from the Japanese Department of Eskenazi, 17 November, 1999, lot 35

More from Japanese & Korean Art

View All