Like many other tea-ceremony incense boxes, this work might have originally been part of a twelve-piece cosmetic box set (jūnitebako), where it would have served as a container for tooth-blackening material. This meticulously crafted small box is decorated with an auspicious composition of plovers and evergreen pine trees on a seashore scattered with shells. Plovers are associated with longevity because their cry, chiyo, is a homonym for “a thousand years.”
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千鳥松蒔絵香合
Title:Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers
Period:Nanbokuchō period (1336–92)
Date:early 14th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Lacquered wood with gold togidashimaki-e on nashiji (“pear-skin” ground)
Dimensions:H. 1 1/2 in. (3.9 cm); W. 2 3/4 in. (6.9 cm); D. 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Accession Number:2015.300.280a, b
These rectangular boxes, known as kōgō, have rounded corners and fitted lids that are very slightly raised and curved at the sides. Thin metal rims encircle both the mouth of the lid and the base. Originally, such boxes held articles used to blacken the teeth with a liquid known as haguro, which was obtained from a mixture of iron and other minerals. An important cosmetic for both men and women in ancient Japan, it seems to have been in common use even before the Nara period; it was regarded during the Heian period as a sign of sophistication and gentility. Male aristocrats at the court of Kyoto continued to use haguro throughout the Edo period; women did so until the late nineteenth century. Its application formed an important part of the symbolism associated with the initiation ceremony for boys and girls at the age of nine. Young women, however, applied haguro on their teeth only after matrimony, as it was a mark of fidelity.
These two boxes are distinguished from other types of toiletry containers by their rectangular shape. A complete cosmetic set usually consisted of a larger box that held two each of three differently shaped containers: square for face powder, round for incense, and rectangular for haguro. The boxes were frequently separated from the sets to which they once belonged for later use in chanoyu (the tea ceremony). Before the late sixteenth century, when the Japanese began making small pottery boxes designed specifically for incense, such lacquer containers were often substituted for the rare and expensive Chinese ceramic imports that were then in vogue.
Except for the bottom surface, the background of each box is covered evenly with fine gold speckles, producing an effect called nashiji (pear skin), as it resembles the spotted skin of Japanese pears. The seascape design on one kōgō (cat. no. 45), with its gnarled pines and plovers in flight, continues from the top onto the four sides and the interiors of both top and bottom. The slightly sharp curve of the top dates this piece to the early fourteenth century, during the Kamakura period;[1] so too does the decorative motif, which in its intricacy and power is worthy of a much larger object.
The nashiji on the other kōgō (cat. no. 46) is slightly denser. The top and sides, together with the interiors of the top and bottom, are decorated with a design of pampas grass, gentian, and other wild plants. The more flamboyant design suggests a date in the fifteenth century, during the Muromachi period.
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Arakawa Hirokazu 1969, p. 64.
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.
Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.
Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.
Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.
Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.
New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Post-renovation opening exhibition: Japanese galleries," April 11, 2006–January 17, 2007.
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.
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. 96, cat. no. 738.
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