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Lot Essay
Kodaiji maki-e takes its name from the temple Kodaiji, founded in eastern Kyoto in 1606 by the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), Kodaiin, or Kita no Mandokoro (1541-1624). The style of the lacquer itself has a painterly and much more simplistic aesthetic compared to the painstaking, highly detailed styles produced up to this time.
Hideyoshi and his vassals were known for their extravagant tastes, demanding that their castles and residences be lavishly and speedily decorated. It has been suggested that the emergence of the Kodaiji style of lacquer was a direct result of this, whereby short cuts had to be found to produce fine lacquer in less time. The lacquerers therefore devised new styles of decoration such as using nashiji [sprinkled gold lacquer] as part of the design rather than as a background.
For further reading and a similar example in the John C. Weber Collection see Melanie Trede, Julia Meech (eds.), Arts of Japan: The John C. Weber Collection, (Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2006), cat. no. 41, p.144-5.
Hideyoshi and his vassals were known for their extravagant tastes, demanding that their castles and residences be lavishly and speedily decorated. It has been suggested that the emergence of the Kodaiji style of lacquer was a direct result of this, whereby short cuts had to be found to produce fine lacquer in less time. The lacquerers therefore devised new styles of decoration such as using nashiji [sprinkled gold lacquer] as part of the design rather than as a background.
For further reading and a similar example in the John C. Weber Collection see Melanie Trede, Julia Meech (eds.), Arts of Japan: The John C. Weber Collection, (Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2006), cat. no. 41, p.144-5.