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Inro: black lacquer with gold maki-e, mother-of-pearl and coral inlay.
(9.5 x 5.2 x 2.5 cm) Netsuke: carved wood with maki-e. Both Edo period.
Copyright  Seikado
Bunko Art Museum. All rights reserved.
This richly decorated inro, of black lacquer on a wood base,
draws thematically upon a Japanese fable relating a contest
between monkeys and crabs. Here, the simian trio is depicted
on one side and their crab adversaries are shown on the opposite
side, with the obverse and reverse faces of the inro forming
one united canvas. The two sides are linked in motif by a persimmon
tree, with the distinct pink-orange color of the fruit worked
in brilliant coral applications. A signature located on the
base surface suggests that the inro was fashioned by Jokasai,
an 18th-century craftsman who served the Tokugawa Shogunate,
or by a member of the lineage that carried on his work for successive
shoguns under the master’s name. |
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