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Lot Essay
The lavishly lacquered imagery on this box represents the Tanabata, the seventh day of the seventh month when the star-crossed lovers Hikoboshi, the Herd Boy, and Orihime, the Weaver Girl, meet across the Milky Way. The magpies and bridge on the cover refer to the episode when the girl is despondent that there is no bridge to span the space separating them; her tears induce a flock of magpies to spread their wings and huddle close to provide a feathered bridge.
The poem inscribed in gold lacquer on the piers of the bridge is by the eminent poet Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) and is contained in the thirteenth-century anthology Go Ninnaji no miya kacho junishu:
Nagaki yo ni
hane o narafuru
chigiri tote
Aki machi wataru
kasasagi no hashi
The poem inscribed in gold lacquer on the piers of the bridge is by the eminent poet Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) and is contained in the thirteenth-century anthology Go Ninnaji no miya kacho junishu:
Nagaki yo ni
hane o narafuru
chigiri tote
Aki machi wataru
kasasagi no hashi