In the Momoyama period, a new style of lacquer decoration, named after the Kōdaiji Temple, developed in Kyoto to cater to the flamboyant taste of the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The corners of this rectangular box are covered in red lacquer, under which a thick layer of hemp—part of the foundation—is visible. The decoration of chrysanthemums and autumn grasses is executed in flat, gold hiramaki-e, whose fine lines create a striking contrast with the black-lacquer background. Lacquers made for the European market around the same time are embellished in a similar style and technique.
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菊秋草蒔絵角赤手箱
Title:Box for Accessories (Sumiaka-tebako) with Chrysanthemums and Autumn Grasses
Period:Momoyama period (1573–1615)
Date:late 16th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Lacquered wood with gold hiramaki-e on black ground; red lacquer applied on hemp
Dimensions:H. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm); W. 11 3/8 in. (28.9 cm); L. 13 in. (33 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Accession Number:2015.300.290a, b
The gently curving top and slightly swelling sides of the overlapping lid on this box suggest a late-sixteenth-century date. This relatively early date is also indicated by the freedom of the drawings of chrysanthemums and autumn grasses gently swaying in the wind. The large, round floral forms are depicted either in flat gold maki-e (hiramaki-e), with details scratched out by needles (harigaki), or in gold outlines that contrast with the black-lacquered background. Tiny dots of gold depicting the autumn dew appear along the delicate stems of the eulalia.
The box, a tebako, was used to store personal accessories. It once contained a tray and smaller boxes for such objects as combs, mirrors, and the utensils used for haguro (teeth-blackening; see cat. nos. 45, 46). Many tebako have survived, including some dating to the twelfth century. Such boxes were usually displayed on shelves like the one in the Burke Collection (cat. no. 94). A box of this type, possibly a prototype for a sumiaka (red-cornered) tebako, but without maki-e designs, appears in a depiction of a monk's quarters in the Boki ekotoba (Illustrated Biography of the Monk Kakunyo) of 1351, where it is shown on a shelf next to a folding screen.[1]
Red-cornered tebako, commonly made in sets of different sizes to hold cosmetics and other personal effects, became part of the bridal trousseau, the contents of which were standardized toward the beginning of the Edo period. Sumptuous sets made for the daughters of the shoguns are still preserved.[2] A complete trousseau would have filled three sets of shelves. A 1793 manual on their contents lists, illustrates, and gives the dimensions of each of the three hundred items to be included in such a set[3]
The present box is one of the earliest known sumiaka tebako. An ample lid overlaps the base. Red lacquer, applied to coarse cloth, is visible between the lid and the base and also through two small heart-shaped cutouts in each corner of the lid. On the long sides of the base are metal knobs in the shape of flowering paulownia, whose loop attachments once held a silk cord. The paulownia, a symbol of royal power, was long associated with the emperor, who had bestowed upon the shoguns the privilege of using the symbol in the early fourteenth century. Hideyoshi had a particular fondness for the motif, and it appears regularly on the Kōdaiji lacquerwares associated with his building projects.[4]
The origin of the sumiaka box is not known. Scholars at one time thought that the red cutout areas imitated metal fittings,[5] but it is more likely that the idea of contrasting elegantly lacquered with undecorated areas covered in a coarser material was inspired by containers with lacquered panels made in China or the Ryūkyū Islands, some of which have cutout areas similar to those found on sumiaka boxes.[6] Although the Chinese and Ryūkyū pieces are finely woven bamboo baskets and the sumiaka tebako cloth-covered wood, in each case it is the contrast between the two different materials and colors that gives the objects their strong stylistic character.
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Scroll II of this emaki, in the collection of Nishi Honganji, Kyoto, is published in Komatsu Shigemi 1985a, p. 16. [2] Y. Shimizu 1988, nos. 227, 228. [3] Saitō Gyokuzan 1937, pp. 346–47. See also Yoshimura Motoo 1976, p. 147. [4] Watt and Ford 1991, p. 159. [5] Ragué 1976, pl. 142; Yoshimura Motoo 1976, p. 146; and Watt and Ford 1991, no. 103. [6] Watt 1985.
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 25, 1993–January 2, 1994.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," February 26, 1994–April 24, 1994.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 14, 1994–January 1, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.
Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.
Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination," July 24, 2019–January 31, 2021.
Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, p. 121, cat. no. 61.
Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia W. Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Ake Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 2, Japanese Objects, Korean Art, Chinese Art. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 120, cat. no. 775.
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