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Writing Box (Suzuribako) with “The Lady of the Bridge” Design

18th century
Not on view
The exterior of this writing box shows two aristocratic ladies reading a letter on a veranda, surrounded by a garden of autumn grasses. The first two lines of a poem from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakashū, ca. 905) are inscribed in inlaid characters on the lid’s exterior and continue on the interior, after which readers are left to complete the poem:

Does she wait for me
Again tonight, having spread
But a single robe
On her woven rush matting—
The maiden at Uji Bridge?

—Translation by H. C. McCullough

The scene and the poem might refer to the Genji chapter “The Divine Princess at Uji Bridge” (Hashihime).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 橋姫蒔絵硯箱
  • Title: Writing Box (Suzuribako) with “The Lady of the Bridge” Design
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: 18th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Lacquered wood with gold and silver takamaki-e and hiramaki-e, and silver inlay on gold nashiji (“pear-skin”) ground
  • Dimensions: H. 1 in. (2.5 cm); W. 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm); L. 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm)
  • Classification: Lacquer
  • Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
  • Object Number: 2015.300.284a–d
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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