A Sumiakabako [Large Red-Cornered Cosmetic Box]

Boxes of this type, which first appeared in the middle of the fourteenth century, are called sumiakabako [boxes with red corners]. Although their use was not strictly prescribed, it seems that they usually held cosmetics, and they regularly formed part of konrei chodo [formal wedding trousseaux]. See Koike Tomio, 'Hatsune no chodo ni tsuite [On the Hatsune no chodo]', in Tokugawa Art Museum, Hatsune no chodo [Hatsune maki-e lacquer furnishings] (Nagoya, 1985), (111-21), 120.