MOMOYAMA PERIOD (LATE 16TH CENTURY)

The style of lacquer that was most in demand in Japan in the Momoyama period (1568-1603) is called after the Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto, which contains Hideyoshi's Memorial Shrine, Kodaiji-maki-e. The craftsmen were allowed considerable freedom with the design, giving the product an unrivalled vigour. The shrine itself had been produced by Koami masters, but so large was the area to be lacquered that even the Koami had allowed this relaxed approach. In spite of the large production, smaller pieces of this lacquer are today very rare. The Kodaiji-style lacquers are characterised by bold decoration, frequently divided into irregular zones of decoration, called katami-gawari, on either a black or gold-flecked brown ground, and comparable to, but not necessarily contemporary with, the Oribe stonewares of Mino, both much influenced by Kyoto textile design. The decoration is almost invariably of flowers, especially chrysanthemums and bell-flowers, and of mon. The technique is always hiramaki-e. This kodansu is of typical shape, and the irregular division of the design is particularly well marked. For a suzuribako very much in this style, see the Kyoto National Museum exhibition catalogue Makie; the Beauty of Black and Gold Japanese Lacquer (Tokyo, 1995), no. 97, or the box in Tokyo National Museum illustrated in the exhibition catalogue of The Metropolitan Museum, Turning point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan (New York, 2003), no. 147.
The Kodaiji style exerted a considerable influence on the slightly later Namban style of export lacquer.