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Japan, nineteenh century
Lacquer, gold and silver
24 x 22 x 4,3 cm
Inv. no. 1350
This writing box, or suzuribako, contains a removable tray with an inkstone, a small container for water and a water-dropper.
The lid is decorated with two screens and a clothes-rack with several male accessories, including an inro, a tobacco pouch, a pipe and the respective case. The two leaves of one screen are decorated with an owl perched on a branch of a Japanese cypress tree. The other screen with feet shows an eagle with its wings open and tied to a perch.
The very varied techniques used to decorate this piece are generically called makie (sprinkled picture) and involve creating drawings by sprinkling metal or coloured powders onto a surface of fresh lacquer.
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