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A SUZURIBAKO [WRITING BOX] A SUZURIBAKO [WRITING BOX] LITERATURE
MOMOYAMA - EDO PERIOD, LATE EDO PERIOD, 17TH CENTURY Edmund J. Lewis, Shadows and Reflections:
16TH - EARLY 17TH CENTURY 蒔絵硯箱、江戸時代、17世紀 Japanese Lacquer Art from the Collection of
Edmund J. Lewis at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
蒔絵硯箱、桃山 – 江戸時代、16世紀後期 – 17 (Honolulu, 1996), no. 60, pp. 146-147
世紀初期 the rounded rectangular box and close fitting
cover decorated in gold and black hiramaki-e, For the story of Choryo (Zhang Liang), see
of rectangular form with overhanging cover takamaki-e, kimpun, gold foil, hirame on a nashiji Stephen Little and Edmund J. Lewis, View of
decorated in gold, black and red hiramaki-e, ground with Choryo (Zhang Liang) riding a dragon the Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes
takamaki-e, kinpun, gold foil and nashiji on a among crashing waves carrying the shoe of the (Honolulu, 2011), pp. 144-145
sparse nashiji and black ground with Ishiyama- elder Kosekiko (Yi Shang), the interior with pines
dera, the interior of the cover with a carriage overhanging a rocky outcrop, the interior of the Choryo (Zhang Liang) was a Chinese statesman
of the early Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). He
beside a plum tree, fitted with tray, waterdropper cover with farmers, leading an ox and carrying is best known for assisting the first Han emperor,
and inkstone, fundame rims. water, beneath rocky outcrops, an owl in the
20.5 cm, 8 1/14 in. long branches of a pine tree, Tokugawa mon to one Gaozu, to establish the Han dynasty in the late
side, fitted with inkstone and waterdropper in the third century BCE.
The Ishiyama Buddhist temple is on the shore of form of a gourd, lead rims
Lake Biwa northeast of Tokyo. The abandoned 20.2 cm, 8 in. long A paper label affixed to the storage box states
carriage is an allusion to the fourth chapter of that the piece was handed down in the Tokugawa
family, Kii Province.
Genji monogatari [the Tale of Genji] entitled
Yugao [Evening faces]. ‡ £ 5,000-8,000
For more information on Genji monogatari see € 5,700-9,100 US$ 6,600-10,600
Miyako Murase, Iconography of the Tale of Genji
(New York, 1983), p.52-57
‡ £ 8,000-10,000
€ 9,100-11,300 US$ 10,600-13,200

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82 SOTHEBY’S