A Kodaiji Maki-e Kodansu (Table Cabinet)
- MOMOYAMA-EDO PERIOD (LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY)

MOMOYAMA-EDO PERIOD (LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY)

(Set Currency)

$50,000 - $70,000

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Sale 2338
Japanese & Korean Art Including Arts of the Meiji Period
15 September 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza Buy Catalog

A Kodaiji Maki-e Kodansu (Table Cabinet)
Momoyama-Edo Period (Late 16th-Early 17th Century)
Rectangular, with a hinged door revealing three drawers, the bottom drawer with four feet, the exterior and interior with a black lacquer ground decorated overall in gold hiramaki-e, nashiji, harigaki and tsukegaki with cherry, weeping cherry and maple trees, the interior and bottoms of the drawers and the base of the cabinet of black lacquer; the corner mounts, plate for the loop handle, door lock and hinges of gilt copper
8½ x 10 3/8 x 14 1/8in. (21.7 x 27 x 36cm.)

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VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Katarogu henshu iinkai (Catalogue editing committee) and Goto Shigeo, eds., Nihon No Bi: Momoyama (Japanese beauty: Momoyama period) (Tokyo: NHK Promotions, 1997), pl. 61.

"Nihon No Bi: Momoyama" (Japanese beauty: Momoyama period), shown at the following venues:
Matsuzakaya Museum, Nagoya, 1997.1.3--1.26
Daimaru Museum, Kyoto, 1997.2.6--2.18
Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Department Store, Tokyo, 1997.2.25--3.9
Kintetsu Art Hall, Osaka, 1997.3.14--3.26

Kodaiji lacquer is a generic term for a type of lacquerware made in Kyoto during the late Momoyama and early Edo periods. The word Kodaiji refers to the temple in Kyoto that was built in 1606 by Kitano Mandokoro Kodai-in, the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598). It houses a mausoleum devoted to the memory of her husband. The temple contains pieces of lacquer which were used by Hideyoshi in his lifetime. The pieces in the Kodaiji collection itself are all registered as Important Cultural Properties, reflecting the importance of Kodaiji lacquer in general.

The lacquering technique used here is hiramaki-e (level sprinkled-pictures) in which the design is formed in lacquer on the prepared and polished black-lacquer ground. Gold dust is then sprinkled over the lacquer so that it will set when the lacquer hardens. The appearance might be enhanced by applying a further layer of lacquer over the design portions, and polishing those portions separately. This is time-consuming and was rarely done probably for that reason. Even so, there is no doubt that the raw appearance of unpolished gold makie gives a depth and richness which would be lost if too much attention were paid to technical perfection. This is a major factor in the unique beauty of Kodaiji work.

Designs are applied with outlines that were either transferred from paper, or freely applied with a brush. When the gold makie has set hard, the finer details were applied with a brush, or scratched with a point (hari-gaki). All these techniques are used on the present box, and they, together with the lively design, make it a classic piece of Kodaiji work.

The overall decoration is of flowering shidare-zakura (weeping cherry) and maple boughs in gold maki-e, with stylized clouds, and nanten, sumire (violets), kikyo (balloonflower), bamboo and other grasses on small areas of ground. The larger shidare-zakura branches hang down as if to greet the much smaller maples rising from the ground in an amusing and imaginative juxtaposition.

The clouds, ground, boughs, leaves and the flowers in various stages of bloom are depicted with all the techniques described above. Outlines are painted, and the areas of maki-e are further decorated both by fine painting and scratching. The veins of the leaves and the stamens of the flowers in particular are finely rendered. The clouds have minute geometrical motifs, including lozenges of the kind often described as lightning or matsukawa-bishi (pine bark lozenges), squares, triangles and short straight lines all similarly scratched into the maki-e with a fine brush.

Previously sold Christie's, London, 12 July, 2006, lot 345

• Japanese Art

• 16th Century
• cabinet
• Furniture & Lighting
• cabinets/cupboards
• lacquer/japanned
• Japan
• Momoyama (1568-1600)

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• IMPORTANT NOTICE
• Conditions of Business for this Sale