Page 76 - 2019 September 11th Bonhams Lewis Collection Japanese and Korean Art NYC

592
KANSAI (ACTIVE 19TH CENTURY)
A rare black lacquer four-case inro
Edo period (1615-1868), dated 1840
Of upright form, the roiro ground embellished
with mura-nashiji, lacquered on one side
with Urashima Taro seated beneath a pine
tree, opening Otohime’s box to reveal
a minogame (bushy-tailed tortoise), the reverse
with an elaborate design of the Sea King’s
palace above five minogame in breaking waves,
in gold and colored takamaki-e, the interior of
matte gold lacquer, signed and dated Tenpo
juichinen gokugatsu Asakusa Seisuian ni oite
tsurezure no hi kore o egaki narabi ni kore o
tsukuru, Kansai (Designed and made by Kansai
in days of leisure, at Seisuian, Asakusa, in the
twelfth month of 1840)
3 7/8in (9.8cm) high
$1,500 - 2,500

Provenance
E.A. Wrangham Collection, sold, Bonhams,
London, The Wrangham Collection of Japanese
Art, Part IV, November 6, 2013, lot 246
Wrangham Collection, no.2026, purchased at
Christies, London, 1991

Published
E. A. Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists,
Harehope, Northumberland, 1995, p.114,
Kansai

592 (two views) 593
YAMADA JOKASAI (ACTIVE 19TH
CENTURY)
A large black-lacquer three-case inro
Edo period (1615-1868), 19th century
The wide inro with a roiro-nuri ground sprinkled
with dense green powder and decorated in
gold and colored togidashi maki-e on one side
with Gama Sennin and on the other with Tekkai
Sennin, the interior of polished red and matte-
gold lacquer, signed Jokasai
3 3/8in (8.5cm) high
$3,000 - 5,000

Provenance
E.A. Wrangham Collection, sold, Bonhams,
London, The Edward Wrangham Collection of
Japanese Art, Part I, November 9, 2010, lot 263
Wrangham Collection, no.339
Sir Trevor Lawrence Collection, no.576
F.A. Richards Collection, purchased at Sotheby’s
London, 1964

Published
The Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, vol.14,
no.2, p.31, fig. 20
E.A.Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists,
Harehope, Nothumberland, 1995, p.99, Jokasai,
second row, second from left

593 (two views) Exhibited
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1972, no.21

The images of Gama Sennin and Tekkai Sennin
are taken from a painting by the fourteenth-
century Chinese artist Yan Hui that was
reproduced in Inro fu, a Japanese book of
designs for inro taken from Chinese originals,
published in 1717.
74 | BONHAMS