The rectangular casket with domed hinged cover, decorated in gold hiramaki-e and inlaid in mother-of-pearl on a black ground, the cover and the front with birds in flight amongst tachibana and camellia, one side with kiri [paulownia] and kikyo [Chinese bellflowers], the other side with tachibana and kikyo, the back with morning glory, all bordered with the bands of geometric patterns, the interior of the cover further decorated with morning glory, gilt bronze fittings engraved with stylised flowers - 33 x 22.2 x 19cm.

Published: Sakai City Museum ed., Namban shikki - shitsugei ni miru tozai koryu [Namban lacquer wares - lacquer art and the exchanges between East and West] (Osaka, 1983), p.29, no.19.

Exhibited: Namban shikki - shitsugei ni miru tozai koryu [Namban lacquer wares - lacquer art and the exchanges between East and West], Sakai City Museum, Osaka, 23 April - 22 May 1983

Note: The Europeans began to arrive in Japan from the late 16th century for trade and Christian missions. To furnish the Christian churches in Japan and also for export, Japanese lacquer workers produced a variety of decorative lacquer chests, coffers, boxes and other furniture, as well as ceremonial religious objects. They were largely in European form but decorated using Japanese techniques and in Japanese designs, sometimes mixed with Western patterns.

Namban lacquerwares were decorated in gold hiramaki-e and shell inlay as in this present lot. Their design is related to Kodaiji lacquer, a type of lacquerware made in Kyoto during the late Momoyama and early Edo periods, which is characterised by expansive and expressive designs in gold hiramaki-e on a roironuri, or black ground, and the favoured subject was flowers and plants. Western missionaries and merchants had opportunities to see Kodaiji lacquerwares and ordered the workshops to make the objects for them using the same design and techniques in freely-painted hiramaki-e. Namban pieces, however, generally employ dazzling shell inlay, which is never found in Kodaiji works and disappears after the Momoyama period. Their decorations are also denser than those of Kodaiji pieces and often combined with some Western patterns such as geometric borders.