拍品專文
Yamamoto Mitsutoshi (1839-1908), whose signature appears on the accompanying storage box, was the fifth master in the Yamamoto Rihei line. He started his career as an official supplier to the Imperial house, making wedding sets and utensils for the Meiji Emperor's enthronement ceremony as well as a scabbard, writing-box and writing-table presented to the shogun Iemochi (1846- 66). After the Meiji Restoration (1868) he was a frequent participant in domestic and international exhibitions and did much to preserve and develop maki-e in Kyoto.1 His pupils included Harui Komin (b. 1869), who made a sumptuous, ultra-traditional cabinet presented to the Prince of Wales in 1921.2
1 Takao Yo, 'Kinsei maki-eshi meikan 4 [A list of Edo- and Meiji-period maki-e artists, 4]', Rokusho, 20 (1996), (104-10), 109; Andrew J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection (New York, 1980), p. 44.
2 T. Goke, J. Hutt, and E.A. Wrangham, The Khalili Collection: Treasures of Imperial Japan, vol. 4, Lacquer (London, 1995), vol. 2, no. 231.