A LACQUER WRITING BOX (SUZURIBAKO)

Details

A LACQUER WRITING BOX (SUZURIBAKO)
(20th century), signed gosaburo saku [domoto shikken (gosaburo) (1889-1964]

Of rectangular shape with rounded corners lacquered with an autumn landscape of grasses and a meandering stream in gold and silver hiramaki-e, togidashi, roiro and kimpun, the blossoms of bellflowers inlaid in mother-of-pearl, the interior designed with bright gold and matte gold chrysanthemums on a roiro and mura-nashiji ground; fitted with a silver chrysanthemum-form mizuire and inkstone lacquered on the base in roiro and gold and silver hirame to match the lower interior of the box, the underside of the removable utensil tray and the base of the box, signed on the interior in gold lacquer, fitted with one brush in a nashiji case; in wood tomobako signed and sealed Gosaburo saku--7 5/8 x 6 5/8 x 1¾in. (29.2 x 17.3 x 4.4cm.)

Lot Essay

Born in Kyoto, Gosaburo was the elder brother of the well-known Japanese-style painter Domoto Insho. He learned the art of lacquer under Tomita Koshitsu and became a leader of the lacquer art world in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area. He exhibited for the first time in the 1928 Teiten and showed works regularly thereafter in the Teiten, Shin Bunten and Nitten exhibitions. In his late years he was a director of the Kyoto Crafts Artists Association. He worked primarily in the maki-e and mother-of-pearl inlay technique. For a 1943 box by this artist in the Domoto Art Museum see National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, ed., Japanese Lacquer Art: Modern Masterpieces, Tokyo (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill/Tankosha, 1982), pl. 68.