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Cabinet

ca. 1900-1915 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Japanese interior was sparsely furnished and what little furniture there was, was distinctly Japanese in form. The cupboard did not exist in Japan until Western influence starting filtering through from the mid 19th century onwards. Clothes and other items were traditionally stored in chests and on clothes’ racks. From at least the Edo period (1600-1868), shelving units tana evolved, the most important being the zushi-dana, kuro-dana and sho-dana, all of which included some enclosed storage areas behind hinged or sliding doors.

Although this cupboard reveals certain Japanese features reminiscent of the various tana, such as the internal arrangement of shelving, it is unmistakably of Western form and was made in Japan for the Western market. Although Japanese export lacquer of the early 20th century is generally of lesser quality, this example is of unusually good quality. Nevertheless the fact that the lacquer has rather fewer layers than would normally be found on items for the domestic market also confirms that the cupboard was made for the export market. The subject of the main designs, a courtier and court lady, also have affinities with traditional subjects of early 17th century export lacquer. These allude to the Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji), the early 11th century classic of Japanese literature. This centres on the life and loves of Prince Genji, with the main protagonists being courtiers.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Cabinet
  • Stand
Materials and techniques
Wood covered with black and gold lacquer with metal mounts
Brief description
Cabinet and stand, gold and silver lacquer on a black lacquer ground, courtier and court lady, flowers and plants, Japanese for the export market, ca. 1900-1915.
Physical description
A wooden cabinet and stand, the cabinet of circular flattened form with a flat base, covered in black-brown lacquer sprinkled with gold powder, with decoration in gold, silver, black and red hiramaki-e (flat sprinkled picture) and takamaki-e (high sprinkled picture) lacquer on a black lacquer ground. The main, middle section consists of two doors, which open down the middle, the left-hand door comprising the full height of this section, whereas the right-hand door is shorter, with two drawers underneath making up the remaining height. The left door is decorated with a male courtier in the lower left under a pine tree looking at a kemari (Japanese football) which he has just kicked; the scene is framed by small rocks in the lower right, part of a brushwood fence and camellias in the lower left and roofs and verandahs in the upper left, with a stream in front of them. The right door depicts a court lady on the edge of a verandah by a flowering prunus tree, together with a rock with holes in the lower left. The doors open to reveal staggered shelving of an asymmetrical arrangement. The right-hand door is decorated on the inside with lespedeza (bush-clover) and butterflies on a nashi-ji (pear skin) lacquer ground, and the left-hand door with a crane under a weeping willow looking up at a bird flying in the top right on a similar ground.

The upper section of the cabinet consists of four drawers, one on the top above three others. The top drawer portrays treetops in the lower right, with mist and mountains in the middle and background. The two outer drawers immediately below depict a waterfall and pine tree, while that in the centre, three birds in flight around a pine tree. Of the two drawers beneath the right-hand door, that on the left depicts cut ferns in a basket with two butterflies flying above, while that on the right, a cut blossoming branch. The left-hand drawer at the bottom of the cabinet depicts a partly-rolled blind and leaves from a trailing plant to the left and a bird escaping from a cage to the right, while the right drawer is decorated with a hiogi folding fan and leaves from a trailing plant to the left, and an open book and a landscape painted on a hanging scroll by flowers to the right. All the decorative panels are recessed and framed by fundame gold lacquer borders, those of the two main panels having inverted corners, while all cabinet doors and drawers are curved at the outer edges to accommodate the cabinet's circular form. The continuous, semicircular band forming the cupboard sides and top are decorated with roundels and shaped cartouches containing various flowers, trees, birds, butterflies and mountains in cut metal foil, hiramaki-e and takamaki-e lacquer.

Many of the cabinet corners, intersections and edges have copper alloy fittings decorated with karakusa scrolls on a nanako (ring punched) ground. All drawer fronts have identical shaped metal handles, and the interiors are of plain black-brown lacquer. The cupboard back is covered in black-brown mura-nashi-ji lacquer (gold powder sprinkled to resemble clouds).

The cabinet stand is in the form of a table with rounded corners and edges, straight legs and relatively undecorated feet. There are two drawers directly below the stand top, the left-hand drawer depicting a flowering camellia branch, and the right a flowering prunus branch, with decorative openwork panels between the legs and the bottom of the drawers at the front.
Dimensions
  • Cabinet width: 35.5cm
  • Cabinet length: 75cm
  • Cabinet height: 69cm
  • Stand height: 61cm
  • Stand width: 72.5cm
  • Stand width: 44.5cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Murakusai saku (Artist's signature in gold hiramaki-e lacquer in the lower middle of the left door front)
Translation
Made by Murakusai
Credit line
Given by Claude Sère
Subjects depicted
Summary
The Japanese interior was sparsely furnished and what little furniture there was, was distinctly Japanese in form. The cupboard did not exist in Japan until Western influence starting filtering through from the mid 19th century onwards. Clothes and other items were traditionally stored in chests and on clothes’ racks. From at least the Edo period (1600-1868), shelving units tana evolved, the most important being the zushi-dana, kuro-dana and sho-dana, all of which included some enclosed storage areas behind hinged or sliding doors.

Although this cupboard reveals certain Japanese features reminiscent of the various tana, such as the internal arrangement of shelving, it is unmistakably of Western form and was made in Japan for the Western market. Although Japanese export lacquer of the early 20th century is generally of lesser quality, this example is of unusually good quality. Nevertheless the fact that the lacquer has rather fewer layers than would normally be found on items for the domestic market also confirms that the cupboard was made for the export market. The subject of the main designs, a courtier and court lady, also have affinities with traditional subjects of early 17th century export lacquer. These allude to the Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji), the early 11th century classic of Japanese literature. This centres on the life and loves of Prince Genji, with the main protagonists being courtiers.
Collection
Accession number
FE.198:1, 2-2002

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
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