Inro, lacquer, Japan, 18th century

KAJIKAWA BUNRUYSAI: A FINE FIVE-CASE TOGIDASHI LACQUER ‘ROOSTER AND HEN AMONG BLOSSOMING CHRYSANTEMUMS’ INRO, AFTER A DESIGN BY FUJIWARA MICHINOBU By Kajikawa Bunryusai, signed Bunryu 文龍 sha kore 寫之 with kakihan Japan, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Of upright rectangular form and oval section, bearing a fine dark brown lacquer ground subtly enlivened with e-nashiji, exquisitely decorated in gold, silver, and iro-e takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, and togidashi maki-e with a rooster and hen accompanied by several chicks among luxuriant chrysanthemums in full bloom.

The plumage is meticulously articulated in contrasting tones and textures, while the blossoms and leafy stems are rendered with equal delicacy. Particularly striking is the sophisticated layering of the decoration, the softly polished togidashi-e passages appearing beneath areas of raised takamaki-e to create a remarkable sense of depth and pictorial richness. The interior cases are finished in fine nashiji with gold fundame rims. The underside is inscribed in gold lacquer Eisen Fujiwara Michinobu hitsu 栄川藤原典信筆 [painted/designed by Eisen Fujiwara Michinobu], with a circular red seal, and BUNRYU sha kore 文龍寫之 [Bunryu rendered/copied this], with the artist’s kakihan in red. With a coral ojime.

HEIGHT 8.7 cm, LENGTH 4.8 cm Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York, United States. Notably, they assembled an impressive collection of Japanese art, focusing on fine netsuke, inro, and lacquer. a few small lacquer bruises, the largest to the top. Presenting beautifully. Bunryusai I was an accomplished lacquer artist and the third master of the Kajikawa family, active in the service of the shogunate in the late seventeenth century.

The name is frequently found on inro and other lacquer objects, although it is not recorded how many members of the Kajikawa family used it. Inro bearing this signature are generally considered to be the work of one or more artists active from the mid-eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, as Bunryusai II and III. For further reference on the artist, see Edward A. Wrangham and Joe Earl (eds.), The Index of Inro Artists, 1995, p. 31. Kano Eisen’in Michinobu (1730-1790) was the sixth head of the influential Kobikicho branch of the Kano school and served the Tokugawa shogunate as an official painter. His designs were also translated into lacquer by leading maki-e artists.

Particularly relevant is an 18th-century Inro with Sparrows and Bamboo in the Edo-Tokyo Museum, explicitly recorded as maki-e by Kajikawa Bunryusai and painted by Kano Michinobu, providing direct evidence for precisely the collaboration indicated by the inscriptions on the present piece.