Page 72 - Sothebys Fine Japanese Art London, November 2018

When Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Society of had arrived in Nagasaki in 1583, set up the Jesuit Art Academy
Jesus (the Jesuits) arrived in Japan in 1549 to commence his in Kyushu which became an active centre for many Chinese
missionary work of converting the Japanese to Christianity, and Japanese students.
he brought with him several Italian paintings of religious sub- Very few of these pieces remain to-day as Christianity was
jects of Christ, the Virgin Mary and various saints. These were banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1620, the missionaries
originally intended to decorate the various churches which he were expelled and a long campaign of execution and persecu-
hoped to construct, but as time went by he realised that was tion against both those missionaries who remained illegally
an increasingly strong demand from local converts for cop- and all their converts was carried out and virtually every
ies of these religious images to assist them in their devotions, item of Christian significance was systematically rooted out
and at the same time these images were extremely useful for and destroyed. In fact the practice of Christianity was totally
spreading farther afield the knowledge of Christianity. banned until the Meiji (1868-1912) period. As a consequence
As Francis Xavier was deemed to be a representative of the these portable Christian shrines are extremely rare and only
King of Portugal he received a friendly welcome despite about twenty are currently known to have survived.
the misgivings of the local governor and his teaching of The existence of such Nanban (‘Southern Barbarian’)
Catholicism met with great initial success. In a short while the shrines was first recognized by Martha Boyer in 1951 (Boyer,
demand for hanging lacquer shrines and portable lecterns Japanese Export Lacquer [Copenhagen, 1951], p. xxvii, pl.23).
exceeded the supply, and the Jesuits commissioned further Subsequent research by the Japanese lacquer scholars Okada
works from the Jesuit Curia in Rome but, owing to the long Jo and Arakawa Hirozaku, as well as by Toshio Watanabe,
time gap, in many cases several years, between the original Haino Akio and Oliver Impey subsequently discovered further
request and its subsequent delivery in Japan the they were examples. For a similar example now in the Kyushu National
obliged to commission local Japanese artists to produce cop- Museum collection, see Sezon Museum of Art and Shizuoka
ies of the paintings and at the same time to arrange for their Prefectural Museum of Art, eds, ‘Porutogaru to Nanban bunka’
hanging lacquer cases to be made by local artisans in Kyoto. ten: Mezase toho no kuniguni [‘Portugal and Nanban culture’
As a consequence the majority of these oil paintings on cop- exhibition: Via Orientals] (Tokyo, 1993), p.206, no.184 and go
per or wooden panels show a European stylistic influence, to the Kyushu National Museum website (Japanese): http:/
whereas the lacquer cases are decorated with a mingling www.kyuhaku.jp/collection/collection_gl01.html. For another
of European and Japanese Kano style. At the same time a shrine see Oliver Impey, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850
Neapolitan Jesuit, Brother Giovanni Niccolò (1563-1626) who (Amsterdam, 2005), p.186, fig.445.

96

PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
A NANBAN LACQUER SHRINE
MOMOYAMA PERIOD, 16TH CENTURY
花鳥蒔絵螺鈿聖龕、桃山時代、16世紀
the rectangular shrine, with two hinged doors opening to
reveal a European frame containing a picture of Christ inset
into a shallow box form with slightly domed top and fitted loop
fixing, decorated in gold and brown hiramaki-e and inset in
mother-of-pearl on a black roironuri ground, the front of the
doors with cranes among wisteria and maple trees, flowers and
grasses, the reverse with grape vine and scrolling tendril, the
edge of the box frame with nanban tendril, the reverse and the
interior of the box, black lacquer overall, the inset European
frame in gold leaf, glazed, the metal fittings engraved with
chrysanthemums
42 x 29.5 cm, 16½ x 11½ in.
£ 70,000-100,000
€ 79,000-113,000 US$ 92,500-132,000

70 SOTHEBY’S