Japanese lacquered 5-tiered jûbako 重箱 (picnic box) with banana leaf design

A rare, high quality lacquered portable jû'bako (tiered food container/stacked picnic box) fitted with a removable vertical safety bar - housing a nice secret – decorated with a refi...

Superb rectangular ‘Rinpa School’-style black lacquer suzuri’bako (writing box) with a slightly arched well-fitted overhanging cover with rounded corners. The lid with a design of a gosho’guruma (ox-drawn carriage for Heian-era nobles) featuring golden hiramaki-e (low-relief lacquer design) and takamaki-e (high-relief lacquer design), inlays of lead and shiny mother-of-pearl (raden). The design continues along the sides. The reverse of the lid decorated with two large curving pine trees (matsu) executed in the same way, but also with intricate dots of tiny pieces of inlaid blue mother-of-pearl along the golden trunk. The interior shaped to hold various scholar’s accessories, including a partially gold lacquered inkstone (suzuri) and a bronze waterdropper (suiteki) shaped like a mythical minogame. The interior inscribed ‘Hokkyô Kôrin zô’ (Made by Hokkyô Kôrin). Referring to the design being in style of the master Ogata Kôrin, but the actual lacquer artist is unknown. It is a homage to Kôrin by an artist that followed the school of Rinpa. Including black lacquer wooden tomobako (tomobako). The Rinpa School was a key part of the Edo period revival of indigenous Japanese artistic interests described by the term yamato-e. Paintings, textiles, ceramics, and lacquerwares were decorated by Rinpa artists with vibrant colours applied in a highly decorative and patterned manner. Favoured themes, which often contained evocative references to nature and the seasons, were drawn from Japanese literature, notably The Tale of Genji, The Tales of Ise...

An antique jubako (stack boxes) with five tiers in an elongated octagon shape circa 19th century (end of Edo or beginning of Meiji period). jubako was traditionally used to store and...

This is a good example of a traditional Japanese Hokai shell storage box for the Kai-awase game. This box is well-detailed in chased brass appliques and makie. The box is in overall ...