Page 177 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

PROPERTY FROM A PRINCELY COLLECTION
63
A RARE NEGORO LACQUER BOW
MUROMACHI PERIOD (15TH-16TH) CENTURY
The bamboo and wood bow (fusedake no yumi) finely covered in red
lacquer with intrusions of black lacquer, the limbs straight with the
tips curve inward, center and bottom tips wrapped with rattan
54¡ in. (138.1 cm.)
$30,000-40,000

EXHIBITED:
"Tokubetsuten Negoro" (Masterpieces of Japanese Negoro ware),
Okura Shukokan (Okura Museum of Art), Tokyo, 3 October-13
December, 2009
LITERATURE:
Kawada Sadamu, ed., Tokubetsuten Negoro (Masterpieces of Japanese
Negoro ware) (Tokyo: Negoro-ten jikko iinkai, 2010), pl. 159.

Bows coated with protective black lacquer are known from as early
as the Heian period, but this may be a nearly unique example of
a Negoro bow. Negoro is a general term used for red-lacquered
wood vessels used in temples and shrines during Japan’s medieval
era, the 14th through 16th centuries. Negoro ware, beloved for
the way the red lacquer wears away in places to expose the black
lacquer underlayer below, is named after the Negoro Temple in
Kii province (modern Wakayama Prefecture). The temple is said
to have had a ten thousand monk-soldiers at one time, which may
account for the production of this weapon.

The present bow, judging by is good condition and superior
craftsmanship, was likely intended for ritual use, rather than the
battlefield.