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.
From the 1750s onwards, customers wanted inro with imaginative and inventive decoration. This inro is decorated with a cockerel and, on the outside, appears quite mundane. It is only when the inro is opened that its full ingenuity and humour are revealed. When the sheath is removed, the body of the inro separates vertically down the middle into two halves, a most unusual arrangement. Instead of the standard arrangement of sections in tiers, the body is hollowed out to receive birds’ eggs of different sizes. Each egg is carefully cut into two and lacquered on the inside. The outside of each is decorated with a different design in lacquer. This example would, of course, have been totally impractical as a functioning inro, but would have made an ideal talking-point among friends.