.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A Meiji-era suzuribako in Tokyo National Museum with a storage box signed Shunsho depicts waves in a similar form of the togidashie [polished-out picture] technique. The waterfall also serves to confirm that this box belongs within the authentic Shunsho tradition, since the design appears to be descended from an earlier version incorporating two figures from a Chinese legend; it also relates to a page in the Shunsho hyakuzu, an album of Shunsho designs, and another suzuribako on the Arashiyama theme, formerly in the Baron Kawasaki collection, that was sold at auction in 1928 [see 1 below]. Only the lid of that suzuribako is illustrated in the auction catalogue, but it is likely to have had a similar interior design to this example, with a boatman poling his craft from Hozu down to Arashiyama, the river fringed with autumnal maple trees.
1 Nagoya City Museum, Makieshi Shunsho, [The Makie Master
Shunsho], (Nagoya, 1992), cat. nos. 31, 63, pp. 47, 57.
This red Shunsho seal is that of Seisho (Masaaki), the ninth generation master, 1846-78, whose signature and seals are illustrated by E. A. Wrangham in The Index of Inro Artists on page 265, in the middle of the block of Shunsho seals.
1 Nagoya City Museum, Makieshi Shunsho, [The Makie Master
Shunsho], (Nagoya, 1992), cat. nos. 31, 63, pp. 47, 57.
This red Shunsho seal is that of Seisho (Masaaki), the ninth generation master, 1846-78, whose signature and seals are illustrated by E. A. Wrangham in The Index of Inro Artists on page 265, in the middle of the block of Shunsho seals.