A rare black-lacquer single-case inro with interior tray


By Okumura, Edo period (1615-1868), late 17th/early 18th centuryOf wide form, bearing a dense roiro ground, lacquered and inlaid with a continuous design of kogai (metal hairpins) decorated with various subjects in gold takamaki-e with details of inlaid shell, one inscribed Goto Yu (jo), the interior of black lacquer with kinji edges and the riser with a geometrical design in chinkinbori, signed Okumura with a kao; with a stag antler Asakusa-school ojime of a stylised shishi, unsigned. 8cm (3 1/8in) wide.
|ProvenanceMichael and Hiroko Dean collection, purchased from Barry Davies Oriental Art, London, 2002.Edward Wrangham collection, no.2192.PublishedMichael and Hiroko Dean, Japanese Lacquer, An Exposition, Kyoto, 1984, no.101.E. A. Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists, Harehope, Northumberland, 1995, p.205, Okumura.Barry Davies Oriental Art, Japanese Lacquer: Nanbokucho to Zeshin, London, 2002, no.88.It has been suggested that the inro is by Okumura Shirobei Yoshiyuki, a member of the Okumura family of lacquerers working in the Genroku era (1688-1704). The design is of a Muromachi-period (1333-1573) kogai by Yujo (1435-1490), one of the earliest members of the Goto family of sword-fitting makers, from whom there are no known signed works but many attested by later members of the school.