The inro is a container made up of tiers. Japanese men used them because the traditional Japanese garment, the kimono, had no pockets. From the late 1500s onwards, Japanese men wore the inro suspended from their sash by a silk cord and a netsuke (toggle). They originally used it to hold their seal and ink or a supply of medicines. However, it rapidly became a costly fashion accessory of little or no practical use. Most inro are rectangular with gently curving sides. The inro is a container made up of tiers. Japanese men used them because the traditional Japanese garment, the kimono, had no pockets. From the late 1500s onwards, Japanese men wore the inro suspended from their sash by a silk cord and a netsuke (toggle). They originally used it to hold their seal and ink or a supply of medicines. However, it rapidly became a costly fashion accessory of little or no practical use. Most inro are rectangular with gently curving sides.
This example is a sheath inro with squared sides. The outer sheath has a shaped opening through which the decoration on the main body can be partly seen. The main body can be pushed up out of the sheath. This not only gives access to the sections of the body, but also makes it possible to see the decoration in full.
Lacquer was most commonly used in the manufacture of inro since it was highly suitable for storing medicines. Lacquer is the sap from the tree Rhus verniciflua that grows mainly in East Asia. After processing, it is applied in many thin layers to a base material. The craft of lacquering, as well as making inro bodies, is highly complex, time-consuming and expensive.
This inro is decorated with the Gods of Wind and Thunder (Fujin and Raijin), one on each main side, in togidashie (‘brought out by polishing’) lacquer. The inro is signed Yamada Joka, after a design by Korin. The design is immediately recognisable as a reproduction of one of the great masterpieces of Japanese painting, a pair of twofold screens by Ogata Korin (1658-1716). It is quite possible that Joka obtained the designs from a woodblock-printed book published in 1815, Korin hyakuzu (One hundred sketches by Korin) by Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828). These printed designs, however, are in black and white only. Yet the gods on the inro are depicted in distinctive colours close to the originals, suggesting that Joka had seen these.