Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers

early 14th century

Not on view

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.”

Artwork Details

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
Object Number: 2015.300.280a, b
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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