Kogo in the Shape of a Deer

Signed: “Kajikawa saku” and with a red pot seal Height: 3 1/8in (7.9cm) Provenance: Michael Tomkinson Collection Leonard Haber Collection Literature: Michael Tomkinson, A Japanese Collection, London: George Allen, 1898, no. 300 Each case with slightly recessed joints and with different grounds, including kinji, nashiji, togidashi maki-e and gyobu-nashiji, on the obverse decorated with a treasure ship laden with the attributes of the Seven Gods...

Wooden basin with ear-shaped handles decorated with hiramaki-e lacquer and gold and silver kirigane on a nashi-ji ground. The large and thick antique woo...

Antique Negoro lacquer wares were produced at the Negoro-ji temple complex in Izumi Province. The red layers of lacquer on Negoro wares are intended to ...

Urushi lacquer on stone Measures: 12.3 by 9.5 by 6.5 cm Tomizo Saratani was born in Kyoto and has spent his life working on traditional japa...

Tokanmuri kabuto Samurai helmet in the shape of a court cap Momoyama to early Edo Period 17th century The wearing of helmets that reproduced the shapes of traditional ...

This pair of screens belongs to a genre of lyrical paintings of flowers, grasses, and other plants that flourished around the middle of the 17th century and became a specialty of the Sôtatsu studio. The use of a rather complex composition of clusters of flowers and the puddling of ink was initiated by Tawaraya Sôtatsu, the founder of the Rimpa School, who was active from 1600 until 1642. The screens are abstract and decorative but there is, at the same time, a keen sense of naturalism not only in the attention to accurate detail but in the profusion of vegetation. The passage of the year is symbolized by the variety of plants that bloom in different seasons. The tarashikomi - here used on leaves, petals and trunks - is a Classic Rinpa technique in which pale black ink or a color is brushed onto an area of a painting and then either darker ink, or the same or a contrasting color, is dropped into the first before it has completely dried, creating an effect of pooled colors with softly blurred edges. Its delicacy, preciousness, and effeminacy are identified with the over-refinement of its patrons, while the vigor, monochromatic discipline, sharp observation, and virile forms of the Kano school are a testament to the vitality of the rising warrior class. The plants are almost all identifiable: in the summer-spring part, you can find wheat, buttercups, irises, begonias, hydrangeas, coral bells...

Kogo box in maki-è lacquer, with a domed lid depicting a naturalistic scene. The gold decoration depicts the Japanese pine, known as Matsu, and a typical house with a thatched roof a...

Exquisitely detailed incense storage box in gold lacquer with silver and gold overlays of a folded screen with heron and willow design. Flowers and winding leaves on the sides.

Late Edo (1614 - 1868) period incense storage box in stacked, double fan design. Fans have bamboo and plum design with a chrysanthemum crest. Silver metal rim and seat, nashiji (gold...

A delightful and intricately decorated lacquer box for storing incense, kogo, in the form of a traditional farm house, Meiji period (1864 - 1912), late 19th century, Japan. The kogo, or small box for storing incense, takes the whimsical form of a traditional Japanese home, minka, with the removable high, thatched roof serving as the cover for the box. The exterior of the home has been painstakingly decorated in maki-e lacquer against a matte black lacquer ground. Traditional shoji doors, bamboo blinds...

An exquisite Japanese Meiji Period small lacquer incense box, kogo, in the form of a duck or goose, late 19th century, Japan. The delicate lacquer box, known as a kogo in Japanese, ...

A wonderful Japanese lacquer incense box, kogo, with a design of sparrows in flight, late Momoyama or early Edo Period, circa 1600, Japan. The small box, called a kogo, was used t...