Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A SMALL JAPANESE GOLD AND BLACK LACQUER NANBAN KAMABOKO-BAKO (COFFER)
MOMOYAMA PERIOD, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Of rectangular shape with a domed hinged cover, decorated with vertical bands of botanical motifs including tsubaki (camellia), tachibana (Japanese orange), trailing kuzu (kudzu vines) and momizi (acer); detailed with raden (mother of pearl) inlay and gold hiramaki-e on a black roiro ground, the copper escutcheon and clasp chased with stylised flowers and the cover with a swing carrying handle, 15.4cm x 23cm x 13cm.

Cf. J Welsh, After the Barbarians: Namban Works of Art for the Japanese, Portuguese and Dutch Markets, pp.296-299, no.38, and the British Museum, London, accession no.1956,0215.1 for comparable examples.

This shape only appeared in Japan following the arrival of the Portuguese in the country in 1543. Different from furniture made for the domestic market, it was referred to by the Japanese as kamaboko-bako or kanabokogata, meaning 'box of fish-sausage shape'. A possible origin for this shape may have been the Indo-Portuguese mother of pearl coffers produced in Gujarat in the mid-16th century. The dense floral decoration also illustrates an awareness amidst Japanese craftsmen of contemporary Indian designs, and the arrangement of alternating floral bands is a popular theme on coffers of this type.