EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

細節

A PAIR OF KAIOKE [SHELL BOXES] AND A PAIR OF LACQUERED SHELLS
Edo Period (18th century)
The wood boxes of the usual octagonal form resting on eight feet, the exteriors covered in paper and painted in Tosa style with scenes from Heian-period court life between gold-painted clouds embossed with stylised floral and other designs; the interiors lined with paper embellished with squares of gold and silver relief, some old wear and damage; the polished, naturally fitting hamaguri [clam] shells painted inside with similar decoration, an identical scene in each half
The boxes 15¼in. (38.7cm.) high; the shells 4 1/8in. (10.4cm.) wide (4)

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

By the middle of the Edo period, a pair of kaioke was an essential component in any set of konrei dogu [wedding furniture], along with more familiar items such as comb boxes, incense sets, writing boxes and basins. The Konrei dogu shoki keisunpo sho [Document on the shapes and dimensions of wedding furniture], dating from 1793, illustrates a typical kaioke on the first page of the first volume and lays down detailed instructions regarding the correct construction, proportions and measurements of a kaioke. Kaioke were used to contained one hundred pairs of clam shells, whose interiors were painted, as in the example associated with this lot, with matching scenes from the Genji monogatari [Tale of Genji] and other courtly texts. These formed the basis of a memory game similar to Western pelmanism. Because each half-shell can only be exactly matched to only one other half-shell, kaioke assumed great symbolic importance in the wedding ceremony itself, and the handing over of the kaioke was a ceremony reserved for the most senior members of the families involved.1

1 Sendai-shi Hakubutsukan [Sendai City Museum], Daimyoke no konrei [Marriage Among the Feudal Lords] (Sendai, 2000), cat. nos. 10, 36, 37.