|
 Stationery Box
(Japan, 17th century,
early Edo period)
Gold lacquer and
mother-of-pearl inlay
over wood core
15 1/2 x 13 x 16 in.
(39.4 x 33 x 40.6 cm)
Gift of the 1988
Collectors Committee, M.88.83a-b
Reverence for the written word is
one of the distinctive features of East Asian civilization. As a
result, enormous attention was lavished on the utensils
associated with writing: the stationery box, writing box, brush,
inkstone, and the ink itself. In Japan, this embellishment of
writing utensils was often achieved with lacquer techniques,
which are some of Japan's greatest contributions to the
decorative arts. In particular, maki-e (gold lacquer) and
mother-of-pearl inlay were employed to transform lacquer into a
medium of unparalleled beauty.
This large stationery box was
made to hold sheets of handmade Japanese paper and was probably
accompanied by a smaller box of similar design, which held the
inkstone, brushes, and ink. Boxes of this type were often made
for presentation to high officials or aristocrats, and the
design scheme was typically of some auspicious motif such as
birds and flowers. This box, however, is covered with a scene of
farmers transplanting seedlings into rice paddies, a design
known to occur on only three other boxes from the seventeenth
century. The artist executed this rare genre scene in various
techniques of gold lacquer; mother-of-pearl is used exclusively
for the seedlings, whether already transplanted, in the hands of
the farmers, or still bunched in the basket on the back of the
ox. Another unusual feature of this box is the artist's
three-dimensional composition: the path between the rice paddies
(with their stylized ripples) meanders down three sides of the
box, emphasizing the volume and mass of the object. The artist
has given careful consideration both to the box's surface
decoration and to its distinctive shape.
Related Topics:
|
