A Gold-Lacquer and Inlaid Hira-Natsume (Squat Tea caddy)
Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1915
Embellished with an autumnal night scene in contrasting gold takamaki-e and gold togidashi maki-e with details highlighted in kirikane depicting the treetops of a forest at the cusp of dawn, the design extending over the sides of the box, two crows on the top, a third in flight below and two perching egrets on the bottom left, the crows applied in shakudo and the egrets in shibuichi, with inlaid gold characters from a verse in the fourteenth-century Fugawakashu anthology incorporated into the design as the moss on the trunks of the trees, the interior lavishly decorated with bands of clouds in dense rich mura-nashiji, e-nashiji and kirikane, signed on the base in gold hiramaki-e Kagyo saku (Made by Kagyo); with double lacquered wood tomobako storage boxes, the outer box inscribed outside the lid Ariake maki-e hiranatsume (Squat tea caddy with maki-e design of dawn), signed inside the lid Nushi Hyosaku (lacquerer Hyosaku) with a seal Hyosaku and Maki-e Kagyo sha (Maki-e drawing by Kagyo) with a seal Morikazu, the inner storage box inscribed Ariake (Dawn) on the lid, the interior of the lid with a copy of the above-mentioned verse in the calligraphy of Shokoin-no-miya Dokoshin'no (Imperial Prince Doko, 1612-1678). 5cm x 8cm (2in x 3 1/8in). (4).