Lot Essay
The race to the Uji River between Kajiwara Kagesue (1162-1200) and Sasaki Takatsuna (d. 1214) is often depicted on inro and other 18th and 19th century lacquers, but the first box appears to be of somewhat earlier date; by the 17th century Kagesue, in particular, had already become the archetypal handsome and tragic young warrior [see 1 below].
1 Osumi Kazuo et. al. (ed.), Nihon kaku densho jimmei jiten [A dictionary of fictional and traditional Japanese personalities] (Tokyo, 1986), 150
1 Osumi Kazuo et. al. (ed.), Nihon kaku densho jimmei jiten [A dictionary of fictional and traditional Japanese personalities] (Tokyo, 1986), 150