Small Box
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This small box (kobako) depicts an animated scene full of movement. The gold swirls and sprinkled nashiji (pear skin ground) lacquer illustrates the force and movement of the water while the pearl inlay in the insect's wings suggesting their rapid flight and bright light. The bright red eyes of the fireflies highlights their positioning on the box and their scattered placement imitates their erratic movement. The box also illustrates a popular Japanese technique where space is counterbalanced with areas of great detail to retain the harmony of the design. Some areas of this box are left without decoration but this neatly contrasts to the detail and dense foliage of the bank.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | lacquered wood |
| Brief description | Small box (kobako) with a deep lid, wood covered in black lacquer illustrating a water way with waterlillies, irises and grasses in gold lacquer, above the waterway are fireflies in black and red lacquer with pearl inlay. |
| Physical description | Small box (kobako) with a deep lid, wood covered in black lacquer illustrating a water way with waterlillies, irises and grasses in gold lacquer, above the waterway are fireflies in black and red lacquer with pearl inlay. |
| Dimensions |
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| Content description | waterlilies, irises, grasses |
| Credit line | Salting Bequest |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Mr. George Salting, accessioned in 1910. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project. |
| Summary | This small box (kobako) depicts an animated scene full of movement. The gold swirls and sprinkled nashiji (pear skin ground) lacquer illustrates the force and movement of the water while the pearl inlay in the insect's wings suggesting their rapid flight and bright light. The bright red eyes of the fireflies highlights their positioning on the box and their scattered placement imitates their erratic movement. The box also illustrates a popular Japanese technique where space is counterbalanced with areas of great detail to retain the harmony of the design. Some areas of this box are left without decoration but this neatly contrasts to the detail and dense foliage of the bank. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.618-1910 |
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| Record created | June 25, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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