A FOUR-CASE INRO

SIGNED MORIYASU, EDO PERIOD (LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY)

Details

A FOUR-CASE INRO
Signed Moriyasu, Edo Period (Late 18th/Early 19th Century)
With black lacquer ground embellished with gold hirame and powder; decoration in gold, black and red togidashi-e, hiramaki-e and takamaki-e; compartments, risers and rims gold lacquer; signed underneath in gold hiramaki-e Kano Shunsen no i maki-e Moriyasu [By the maki-e craftsman after a design by Kano Shunsen]

The torii [arch] at the entrance to the Sumiyoshi shine; on the reverse the shore of the Inland Sea with mountains in the distance
3in. (7.7cm.) long

Sale room notice

Please note that the illustration for this lot has been transposed. The lot is sold as described in the catalogue and not as numbered in the illustration.

Lot Essay

This is the only piece recorded with the signature Moriyasu and nothing is known of the Kano artist Shunsen (previously misread as Yusen)1. The grouping of pines, torii and sea-shore can be taken as referring to the shrine at Sumiyoshi, one of several locations on the coast near to present-day Osaka and Kobe that were celebrated in early literature and often depicted in lacquer.

1 E.A. Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists (Harehope, Northumberland, 1995), pp. 185-6

More from Netsuke & Lacquer from the Japanese Department of Eskenazi

View All