Page 395 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Fig. 4.1.3.1 Tiered lacquer box (jubako) Fig. 4.1.3.2 Icones Habitus Getusque
Momoyama/early Edo period
Height: 27cm; width: 24; depth: 22cm
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
(inv. no. 68 cx)
Lacquer for the Japanese domestic market [4.1.3]
To finalize the discussion of the European influence on Japanese lacquer it is imperative
to mention briefly a variety of Namban objects decorated in lacquer of very high 355 For a discussion and images of an example, which
quality with European figures, which were made during the period of Portuguese forms part of a matching set of horse trappings,
see Canepa, ‘Matching set of horse trappings, see
presence in Japan, from 1542/1543 to 1639, most probably for the Japanese domestic Vinhais and Welsh, 2008/1, pp. 92–103, no. 1.
356 For a discussion and an image of an example in
market rather than for export to Western Europe or the New World. The strange the Fundação Abel e João de Lacerda – Museu do
physical features of the Portuguese merchants and officials, and their attendants Caramulo (inv. FAL 372), see Alexandra Curvelo,
‘Writing Box [suzuribako]’, in d’Oliveira Martins,
(sailors, African slaves, Indians and Malays), dressed with their voluminous breeches 2010, pp. 187–188, no. 49.
357 Examples can be found in the Museu Nacional de
(bombaxa), doublets, cloaks, collars, ruffs and tall hats, who came to Japan every year Arte Antiga in Lisbon, the Tokyo National Museum
in the Black Ship (kurofune), called the Namban-jin in Japan, were so fascinating to and the Kobe City Museum. For an image of the
latter example, see Impey and Jörg, 2005, p. 81,
the Japanese craftsmen that they were portrayed with a high degree of detail on various ill. 123.
358 A chair of X-frame construction after a Chinese
objects, mostly made in traditional Japanese shapes, all finely decorated in lacquer. model decorated in makie with Portuguese figures,
These include wooden objects, such as saddles (kura), food boxes (jubaco), writing dating to the second half of the sixteenth century,
355
is found in the Zuikō-ji Temple in Kyoto. This chair
boxes (suzuribako), letter boxes (fumibako), chairs and powder flasks; as well closely resembles those imported from China
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into Japan by the Portuguese, which often appear
as metal objects, such as stirrups (abumi). depicted in Namban folding screens. Published in
360
Impey and Jörg, 2005, p. 80, ill. 121.
Although these lacquer objects fall out of the scope of this study, they deserve 359 For images of an example decorated on its interior
some attention because they provide further material evidence of the profound with Namban-jin figures in the Museu Nacional de
Arte Antiga in Lisbon, see Mendes Pinto, 1990,
influence that the continuous presence of the Portuguese and their culture exerted pp. 49–50.
on the Japanese daily life and the arts made during the Momoyama and early Edo 360 Metal stirrups depicting Portuguese and Namban-
jin figures were also decorated in brass and
period for the warrior elite and wealthy merchant class. A tiered food box (jubako) silver inlay (nunome zōgan). For a discussion and
images of these pieces, Vinhaís and Welsh, 2008/1,
dating to the first quarter of the seventeenth century in the Museu Nacional de Arte pp. 124–133, nos. 6 and 7.
394 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
Indorium AC Lusitano Veventium
Jan Hyugen van Linschoten (1563–1611), 1604
Atlas Van Stolk, Rotterdam (inv. no. 46332-46362)
361 The samurai, as noted by Curvelo, was a warrior class Antiga in Lisbon not only serves as an example to illustrate such influence, but also
that consisted of warrior vassals of a military chief
(daimyō or shōgun). Curvelo, 2012, p. 245 (p. 512, attests to the curiosity and taste for the exotic that aroused among the shōgun, daimyō
English text). and bushi or samurai throughout Japan with the annual arrival of the Namban-jin,
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362 The taste for the exotic among the daimyō is clearly
reflected in a Jesuit report of 1594, which notes the Portuguese and their multitude of foreign attendants, to Nagasaki from what was
that Hideyoshi ‘has a great liking for Portuguese
clothing, and the members of his retinue, in then an unknown world (Fig. 4.1.3.1). This food box is also a hybrid lacquer as it
362
emulation, are often attired in the Portuguese combines a traditional Japanese shape and decorative techniques, including makie,
style. The same is true even of those daimyōs who
are not Christian. They wear rosaries of driftwood takamakie and kirikane, with European motifs. Its decoration is configured by two
on their breasts, hang a crucifix from the shoulder
or waist, and sometimes even hold a handkerchief. groups of Portuguese merchants and their attendants, each realistically depicted in
Some … have memorized the Our Father and large-scale on the sides disregarding its four overlaid trays, and of one other group on
the Hail Mary, and recite them as they walk in the
streets. This is not done in ridicule of the Christians, the lid. The group with seven people is particularly interesting as it depicts a Portuguese
but simply to show off their familiarity with the
latest fashions’. Cited in Okamoto, 1972, p. 77; and figure, possibly a Captain-major, walking beneath a parasol held by an attendant, and
Rupert Faulkner, ‘Personal Encounters: Europeans watching a Japanese boy who is ahead of them. The gestures and appearance of the
in East Asia’, in Jackson and Jaffer, 2004, p. 186.
Also see a detail from a pair of six-panel folding figures depicted on the food box, as Borges de Sousa has noted, appear to indicate
screens in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,
The Avery Brundage Collection (inv. nos. B60D77+ that the Japanese lacquer craftsmen had direct contact with these foreigners and thus
and B60D78+) depicting two Japanese wearing would have been able to observe carefully their distinct facial features (big noses and
Namban-jin clothes, published in Ibid., p. 187,
pl. 14.9. large bulging eyes), the exotic clothes they wore and their daily customs. One has
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363 Published and discussed in Maria da Conceição
Borges de Sousa, ‘Caixa para Alimentos [jukakō] to consider the possibility, however, that in fact, the representation of such figures
– ‘Tiered Food Box [jukakō]’, in d’Oliveira Martins, may have been based on a European printed source, such as a print from Jan van
2010, pp. 189–191, no. 50; and Maria da Conceição
Borges de Sousa, ‘Portavivande’, in Morena, 2012, Linschoten’s Itinerario, first published in Amsterdam in 1596 (Fig. 4.1.3.2). Jesuit
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pp. 280–281, no. II.6 (p. 527, English text).
364 Published in Canepa, 2008/1, p. 26, fig. 14. sources, as discussed earlier, show that the Jesuits living in Japan acquired this type of
365 The transcription of the original text in Portuguese food boxes. One wonders if the five-tiered food box listed as ‘a five store jûbako’ among
reads: ‘hum Jubaco de sinco sobrados’. Cited in
Curvelo, 2001, p. 32. the goods left by Father Manuel Barreto to his successor in 1616, would have been a
lacquer example decorated with European figures.
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Trade in Japanese Lacquer 395