YUASA KAGYO (1875-1952) AND SUZUKI HYOSAKU (1874-1943)

A Gold-Lacquer and Inlaid Hira-Natsume (Squat Tea caddy)
Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1915
Embellished with an autumnal night scene in contrasting gold takamaki-e and gold togidashi maki-e with details highlighted in kirikane depicting the treetops of a forest at the cusp of dawn, the design extending over the sides of the box, two crows on the top, a third in flight below and two perching egrets on the bottom left, the crows applied in shakudo and the egrets in shibuichi, with inlaid gold characters from a verse in the fourteenth-century Fugawakashu anthology incorporated into the design as the moss on the trunks of the trees, the interior lavishly decorated with bands of clouds in dense rich mura-nashiji, e-nashiji and kirikane, signed on the base in gold hiramaki-e Kagyo saku (Made by Kagyo); with double lacquered wood tomobako storage boxes, the outer box inscribed outside the lid Ariake maki-e hiranatsume (Squat tea caddy with maki-e design of dawn), signed inside the lid Nushi Hyosaku (lacquerer Hyosaku) with a seal Hyosaku and Maki-e Kagyo sha (Maki-e drawing by Kagyo) with a seal Morikazu, the inner storage box inscribed Ariake (Dawn) on the lid, the interior of the lid with a copy of the above-mentioned verse in the calligraphy of Shokoin-no-miya Dokoshin'no (Imperial Prince Doko, 1612-1678). 5cm x 8cm (2in x 3 1/8in). (4).
Footnotes:
For the full text and further discussion of the hidden poem, as well as the likely significance of the design of this tea caddy, please refer to the footnote to lot 86 in this catalogue. For an anonymous hira-natsume in the Khalili Collection, with a related but not identical design, see Tadaomi Goke, Julia Hutt and E.A. Wrangham, The Khalili Collection: Treasures of Imperial Japan, vol. 4, Lacquer, London, Kibo Foundation, 1995, part 1, cat. no.29.
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