Page 24 - Christie's The Joseph Collection of Japanese Art

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A FINE LACQUER KAKESUZURIBAKO Word and image are combined here to create a poem-picture in the classical style.
[STACKED WRITING BOX AND STATIONERY BOX] Two phrases (kurete yuku and shirane domo) allude to a waka [Japanese poem]
included in the Shin Kokinwakashu [New Collection of Ancient and Modern Verse]:
SIGNED SHOMIN [OGAWA SHOMIN (1847-1891)]
宇治橋柴舟図蒔絵掛硯箱
Kurete yuku As spring comes to an end
銘 松民 [小川松民 (1847-1891)]
haru no minato wa I don’t know where it is going
The rectangular box with rounded corners comprising two tiers with fush-ftting shirane domo But now I feel it is like
slightly domed cover, the top tier containing suzuribako fttings of slate inkstone and
kasumi ni otsuru the faggot-laden boats tumbling
silver water dropper in the form of conjoined tomoe mon, decorated overall in gold
Uji no shibabune into the mist on the Uji River
and black hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, sparse nashiji, and inlaid in gold and mother-of-
pearl, the cover with scattered bundles of brushwood among cherry blossom petals
inlaid in gold beneath pine and cherry blossoms in distant hills shrouded in clouds,
a poem in hiragana characters inlaid in mother-of-pearl, the sides with a bridge
beneath cloud and the boats inlaid in shakudo carrying brushwood, the interior with
cut gold foil and mura-nashiji depicting tomoe mon, seaweed and needle-like pieces
of kirikane, the inside of the cover similarly decorated as is the suzuribako, silver rims
19cm. long
£15,000-20,000 $26,000-34,000
€19,000-25,000