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.
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.
Owing to the small and limited size of the inro, much variety was provided by its decoration and the manner in which it was laid out over the surface. On one type of inro, the motifs were spread out over the entire body without taking account of its contours or borders. This often resulted in motifs cut by the edges of the inro at unusual or unexpected places. This inro is one such example. It depicts myriad dragonflies and butterflies in gold and red takamakie (literally high-sprinkled picture) lacquer. This is a considerable achievement when considering the small scale of the decoration and the fact that it is carried out in the makie (sprinkled picture) technique. This involves forming the design by sprinkling gold and red powders on to a prepared lacquer surface.