1741 - 1760 - XVIII

L-0039

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 5.4; Larghezza: 25.6; Profondità: 22.7

legno laccato

"Urushi" is the term for Japanese lacquered objects. The gold maki-e lacquer decoration technique, literally "sprinkled painting", is the Japanese technique par excellence and is achieved by sprinkling the lacquered surface with metal powders, usually gold and silver. The lacquered objects were often for everyday use, such as this suzuribako writing box containing the stone on which the ink was prepared. The external decoration, a lone pine tree on a rock in the stormy sea, was a motif dear to hitosumatsu literati. Suzuribako desk box; this type of box was used to store writing instruments, such as brushes and seals. It still contains the plate on which to prepare the ink, a plant-shaped inkwell and the space to store the brushes. On the outer surface of the lid there is a night view: among the waves of a rough sea stands a rocky islet on which stands a solitary pine tree, a reference to the poetic and literary environment. Both the interior of the lid and the interior of the suzuribako are decorated with a similar marine motif: a flock of plovers flying on the waves. The larger desk boxes could also hold tools such as the paper cutter, the punch to pierce the sheets in order to bind them, and a handle to tap into the ink pad without touching it. The oldest boxes could already contain sheets inside; the next, smaller ones, contained, like a box, only writing materials and a separate box (ryōshibako) was intended for sheets and documents.