Portable Nanban Box
Not on view
In the second half of the sixteenth century, Japanese lacquer made for Western markets was known as nanban (Southern Barbarian), a reference to the epithet given to foreigners from Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Many of these export lacquers were made in Kyoto. The maki-e (“sprinkled picture”) and rich mother-of-pearl decoration on this box consists of continuous interlinked circles (shippō) with stylized flowers in the intersections and five flower roundels on the lid.
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