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.
This inro is decorated with a dragon among stylised clouds on one side, and a pair of swallows in flight above foaming waves on the other. Both are framed and surrounded by diaper patterns at the sides, top and bottom of the inro. The decoration is carried out in small, thin iridescent pieces of pearl-shell and gold foil on a lustrous black lacquer ground in a style known as Somada, after the family of the same name who made the style famous.