Writing boxes hold an inkstone (suzuri), a water dropper, and writing brushes. As with this example, they are often decorated with images featuring literary references. This box is embellished with a design referring to Naniwa (present-day Osaka), one of the famous scenic spots of Japan. The poem depicted on its exterior and inscribed on the lids’s interior is from New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Shin kokin wakashū, ca. 1206).
Tsu no kuni no Naniwa no haru wa yume nare ya Ashi no kareha ni kaze wataru nari
Was spring at Naniwa in Tsu Province a dream? Wind blows over the withered reeds’ leaves. —Trans. Haruo Shirane
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浪花の夢蒔絵硯箱
Title:Writing Box (Suzuribako) with “Dream in Naniwa” Design
Period:Edo period (1615–1868)
Date:18th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Lacquered wood with gold, silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, and silver inlay
Dimensions:H. 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm); W. 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm); L. 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number:2015.300.286a–h
This suzuribako (inkstone box) was made to hold an inkstone, a water dropper, and writing brushes. The exterior of the beveled lid is covered in gold maki-e, with a design of water and sand under golden suyari (stylized cloud formations). The small water reeds were created with takamaki-e (raised maki-e, or sprinkled gold applied in high relief), and the three rocks are made of lead inlay. What might seem to be an anonymous design is in fact connected to a literary theme, revealed on the inside of the lid (below, right), where the words "Naniwa no yume nareya" —from a poem by the twelfth-century monk Saigyō (see cat. no. 79)—are inscribed. The poem, number 625 in the Shin kokinshū (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, ca. 1206), reads in its entirety:
Tsu no kuni no Naniwa no haruwa yume nareya Ashi no kareha ni kaze wataru nari
Was the spring a dream I dreamed in Naniwa? Only the withered reeds now rustle in the wind.
Writing implements and suzuribako were essential items in the daily lives of cultivated Japanese men and women, and more than any other type of lacquerware, these objects featured decorative motifs related to classical literature. Scenes from famous works such as the Genji monogatari or the lse monogatari, were often represented on the lids of writing boxes, and designs often included quotations from classical poems. The device of inscribing words from a poem in such a manner that the characters become part of the image is known as ashide, or ashide-e (pictures with reed script), a term originally used to describe a fluid calligraphic style that was appropriate to images of flowing water.[1] It later came to refer to the integration of letters with the representational scheme. There are no surviving examples of ashide from the tenth or eleventh century, when, judging from literary references, they were extremely popular. Examples from the twelfth century, of which many are extant, include the frontispieces of the Heike nōkyō (Sutras Donated by the Heike Clan, ca. 1167) in the Itsukushima Shrine (Hiroshima Prefecture).[2] While letters in the twelfth-century paintings are closely integrated with pictorial elements, they became increasingly independent of them during and after the Kamakura period.[3]
Naniwa, one of the meisho (scenic spots) of ancient Japan, was closely associated with reed imagery in poetry;[4] in the Genji monogatari, reeds on Naniwa beach are compared to ashide.[5] The popularity of literary themes as subjects for the decorative arts declined during the Momoyama period. Warrior-class patrons preferred less tradition-bound images, as can be seen from Kodaiji-style lacquerware, which was tailored to their taste (cat. nos. 88–94). Literary themes enjoyed a revival during the Edo period, although poetic allusions were generally limited to meisho[6] This suzuribako is a fine example of the continuing tradition of meisho representation in lacquer design of the Edo period.
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Shirahata Yoshi 1980, p. 291. [2] Meech-Pekarik 1977–78, pp. 52–78. [3] Haino Akio 1980, p. 298. [4] See lenaga Saburo 1966a, poems 903, 936, and 1083 from the mid-tenth century. [5] Murasaki Shikibu 1976, p. 518. [6] Haino Akio 1980, p. 301.
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.
Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.
Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art (Part One)," October 12, 1995–April 28, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia W. Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Ake Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 2, Japanese Objects, Korean Art, Chinese Art. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 108, cat. no. 760.
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