Details
An Ivory Yatate
Signed Meikeisai with Hojitsu inlaid in red lacquer in seal form, Meiji Period (19th Century)
The body and cover of the yatate [portable case for brush and ink] carved in relief with a large variety of male and female demons and goblins with an elephant taking part in a musical procession, some of the heads in the form of birds, insects and animals such as boar, rabbit and tanuki, other more eccentric beast have heads in the form of biwa, suzuri, chasen, chawan, koto, the bumboku chagama and a kabuto, a tengu with an axe chases a running tree and a sake flask-headed figure with a large fan escorts a tengu-headed Okame, in front of them an ox-headed prancing figure accompanies another whose head is the body-piece [do] of a suit of armour with an extremely long tongue, from an original design by Tosa Yukihide, two goblins and a tongue-cut sparrow on the inside of the hinged cover are highly discomforted by three birds and the rising sun of the dawning day, the rim of the inkwell gilt copper, the hinge in the form of a kakemono painting of Shoki
