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Round Writing Box with Plum Tree (T-4429

Creator: Shoso Yasuhara
Offered by: Thomsen Gallery

Description
A circular suzuribako (box for writing utensils), the wood body finished in polished black roiro lacquer and decorated on the lid in gold and silver hiramaki-e (low-relief sprinkled design) and shell with a single weeping-plum tree with outsize blossoms; the interior decorated with swirling waves in gold hiramaki-e, the box inset with suzuri (ink-grinding stone) and silver suiteki (water-dropper for making ink) engraved with the crescent moon, and two fude (writing brushes), the rims silver, with silk wrapper and pad

With fitted wood tomobako storage box inscribed outside Circular box for writing utensils with plum in maki-e) signed Maki-eshi Shoso with seal Shoso

Yasuhara Shoso was son of Yasuhara Kiyoshi, a native of Kanazawa, a center of lacquerware production during the Edo period (1615–1868), who had moved to Osaka to engage in the manufacture of goods for export. Taking over the business in 1899, Shoso started to show his work at exhibitions in the second decade of the twentieth century, graduating to national level in 1927 when he first participated in the Teiten national salon; he would exhibit a further five times, finishing in 1940 at the great exhibition held to commemorate the 2600th anniversary of the Japanese Imperial house. Adapting time-honored motifs and exploiting to the full his mastery of the traditional techniques of Kaga maki-e, the sophisticated decorating tradition that had developed in Kanazawa over the previous three centuries, Shoso forged a distinctive modern style that echos similar achievements by his contemporaries in the fields of metalwork and ceramic decoration.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Origin:	Japan
Period:	1900-1919
Materials:	Maki-e gold lacquer on wood with shell inlays
Condition:	Good. Excellent condition
Creation Date:	1930s
Styles / Movements:	Other, Modern, Collectible Design
Patterns:	Florals/Botanical, Modern
Incollect Reference #:	158118

Dimensions

H.2.	1.97 in;	Diam.	9.45 in;
H.2.	5 cm;	Diam.	24 cm;

Message from Seller:

Thomsen gallery, located in a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, offers important Japanese paintings and works of art to collectors and museums worldwide. The gallery specializes in Japanese screens and scrolls; in early Japanese tea ceramics from the medieval through the Edo periods; in masterpieces of ikebana bamboo baskets; and in gold lacquer objects.