Live Auction 2688Japanese and Korean Art
A gold lacquer display cabinet (kazaridana)
Lot 622

A gold lacquer display cabinet (kazaridana)

EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Closed20 March 2013

Price Realised

USD 243,750

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A gold lacquer display cabinet (kazaridana)
Edo period (19th century)
A set of shelves set on four bracket feet and with slightly upcurved top edges, the top surface and four open rectangular shelves below, and a lower cabinet enclosed by a pair of hinged doors and a cabinet enclosed by two sliding doors; decorated on all the outer surfaces in varicolored gold and silver hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, togidashi, kirikane, okibirame and gold and silver inlay on a nashiji ground with the landscape of Yoshino with hills, river, mountain cottages and blossoming cherry trees, and with distant hills above farmhouses by a riverbank, the top with moon inlaid in silver above a village beside a stream with footbridge, the interior back panel behind the hinged doors patterned in gold and silver hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, togidashi, kirikane and okibirame on a nashiji ground with maple trees and scattered maple leaves on the eddies of the Tatsuta River, the interior back panel of the lower cabinet decorated with stylized cherry blossoms and clouds on a nashiji ground, the silver mounts made en suite with cherry blossoms and maple leaves
45½ x 18 x 42½in. (115.6 x 45.7 x 108cm.)
With wood box

Specialist note

Cherry blossoms are the symbol of the spring season in Japan. No site is more famous for its profusion of blossoms than the Yoshino hills south of Nara. One hundred thousand trees, mostly yamazakura (white mountain cherries), burst into bloom for two short weeks in early April. The original groves were said to have been planted by a Buddhist priest in the late seventh century. They were consecrated to the god Zao Gongen and new trees were planted from time to time until the entire hillside was covered. Yoshino has long been celebrated for its beauty in Japanese poetry.

The autumn counterpart to Yoshino is the scenery of the Tatsuta River, Kyoto, here visualized on the back panels on the interior of the cabinets. The stands of red maples and leaves flowing on the current of the river, like the scenery of Yoshino, evoke literary and pictorial themes.