This elegant food box, created for a celebratory meal, features garment racks draped with kimonos and clothing accessories. Such images were called “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode), a phrase used in waka poetry that here suggests the absent but presumably elegant owner of the depicted garments. Such imagery became popular on folding screens and on decorative arts from the late sixteenth century onward.
In this design, the lower panel of the lacquer stand includes a scene from Chapter 51, “A Boat Cast Adrift” (Ukifune), in which the amorous Prince Niou takes Ukifune away by boat on a cold early spring day to a mansion across the Uji River. On the way, they stop at the Isle of Orange Trees and exchange poetry, the moment captured on the box.
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誰ヶ袖蒔絵重箱
Title:Stacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) Design
Period:Edo period (1615–1868)
Date:18th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Lacquered wood with gold and silver hiramaki-e, gold- and silver-foil application, and mother-of-pearl inlay on gold nashiji (“pear-skin”) ground
Dimensions:H. 10 5/8 in. (27 cm); W. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm); L. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Accession Number:2015.300.288a–e
This set of four nearly square jūbako, or stacked food boxes, is decorated in the nashiji (pear skin) technique. The pictorial design, which begins on the lid and continues down two sides, depicts a kimono draped over a clothes rack whose lower panel illustrates a scene from the Genji monogatari. A narrow sash, women's amulets, and perfume bags are also suspended from the rack; on the floor is a tamoto otoshi (drop-into-sleeves), a small purse kept inside the sleeves. A second rack holds additional garments and amulets, and a small screen depicting a landscape with a waterfall—with yet another draped kimono—completes the design.
The literary and pictorial theme known as tagasode was popular as a subject for screen painting during the Momoyama and Edo periods (see cat. no. 143). The term—which translates as "Whose sleeves?"—refers to the beautiful, though absent, owner of the kimonos and other feminine accessories that are represented. It was a word frequently used.in waka poetry as early as the Heian period; verses mentioning tagasode are included in the Kokinshū (A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; ca. 905). On this set of lacquer boxes, the theme is combined with the Genji episode.
The image on the lower panel of the clothes rack, which shows a young man and woman in a boat, is one of the most frequently rendered from the narrative. In chapter 51, "Ukifune" (A Boat upon the Waters), a young girl of the same name is abducted on a cold February day by the amorous Prince Niou and taken by boat to the Isle of Orange Trees.[1] Despondent over the incident—for she is also romantically involved with Niou's handsome kinsman, Kaoru—she later attempts to drown herself.[2] The oranges in this picture-within- a-picture are inlaid in dark lead and shimmering mother-of-pearl, seen also on the kimonos and accessories. The craggy hill and waterfall depicted on the small screen reflect the painting style of the Kano school, which suggests that a Kano-trained artist perhaps supplied the preliminary design.
Lacquered containers for food became increasingly lavish during the Edo period.[3] Jūbako sets, sumptuously decorated with motifs rich in literary allusions, were used at gatherings of the well-to-do, both at home and at festive outdoor picnics.
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Murasaki Shikibu 1976, pp. 991–92. [2] Chapter 53, "Tenarai" (At Writing Practice), in ibid., pp. 1043ff. [3] Haino Akio 1985, p. 37.
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer," December 2, 2006–April 1, 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated," March 5–June 16, 2019.
Leidy, Denise Patry. Mother-of Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006, p. 73, cat. no. 42.
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. 111, cat. no. 764.
Carpenter, John T., and Melissa McCormick. The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019, pp. 286–87, cat. no. 89.
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