This stand may have been converted for use in a tea ceremony from a table that would have been placed in front of Buddhist paintings to hold incense burners. It is embellished with autumn flowers and dew-dappled grasses, including chrysanthemums, pampas grass, and Chinese bellflowers. By the late sixteenth century, Kyoto, with its numerous workshops, had become the most important center of Japanese lacquer art. It was at this moment that Toyotomi Hideyoshi changed the way maki-e decoration was applied. The military leader ordered the maki-e decoration of large furniture items, household objects, and interior elements—objects that would not normally have been worthy of such luxurious treatment. By utilizing several relatively simple techniques, craftsmen were able to create innovative, bold designs without complicated underdrawings and could cover large surfaces in a comparatively short timeframe. This flamboyant style was named Kōdaiji after the temple in Kyoto that was dedicated to Hideyoshi and his wife, Nene.
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秋草蒔絵台子
Title:Stand with Autumn Grasses and Flowers
Period:Edo period (1615–1868)
Date:first half of the 17th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Lacquered wood with gold hiramaki-e and e-nashiji (“pear-skin picture”)
Dimensions:H. 16 7/16 in. (41.8 cm); D. 10 1/16 in. (25.6 cm); Shelves: H. 10 in. (25.4 cm); W. 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number:2015.300.291
This elegant table with slender frame, originally placed in front of Buddhist icons to hold incense burners and other small objects, may have been converted later for use in chanoyu. The bottom shelf is covered in plain black lacquer, while the top and middle shelves are embellished with gold maki-e with similar designs of autumn grasses, chrysanthemums, Chinese bellflowers, and eulalia; also present on the top and middle shelves are, respectively, designs of bush clover and wild pinks. The delicate plants sway gently in an autumn breeze that scatters pearls of dew, and pine seedlings cover the edges of the shelves and posts.
The variety of maki-e techniques compensates for the limited design vocabulary. As in the large sumiaka tebako (cat. no. 88), the black ground is left undecorated, drawing the eye to the gold-filled leaves and flowers executed in the e-nashiji (pictorial nashiji) technique. The slender stems and leaf veins, threadlike eulalia leaves, and tiny beads of dew are rendered in fine gold powder sprinkled directly over the carefully applied wet lacquer, producing a sharp contrast of colors and textures within the small flowers and leaves. Negative outlines are created by the kakiwari ( divided drawing) technique, in which areas of the black ground are kept in reserve during the sprinkling of gold flakes. In a timesaving and daring innovation in the production of export (nanban) lacquer (cat. nos. 95, 96), extremely thin lines were made by scratching out gold-filled areas with a needle, a method known as harigaki (needle drawing), also used to delineate such fine details as the contours of petals and the veins of leaves. On the back of the bottom shelf is a handwritten seal (below, left), probably that of a previous owner, who remains unidentified.
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
Signature: Signature on underside of bottom shelf.
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.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan," October 21, 2003–January 11, 2004.
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.
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. 122, cat. no. 59.
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. 122, cat. no. 778.
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