A LACQUER MINIATURE KODANSU (CABINET) WITH SCENES FROM SHITAKIRI SUZUME (THE TALE OF THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW)Japan, 19th centuryOf rectangular form with recessed gold fundame edges, bearing a rogin-nuri ground finely decorated in iro-e togidashi-e and e-nashiji to depict scenes from Shitakiri Suzume, with elaborately dressed humanoid sparrows leading the elderly man into the bamboo grove to meet his sparrow friend, and others dancing and playing musical instruments to entertain the man while he enjoys a feast, the top of the box with a fan and a chest filled with treasure including jewels, coral, and shells. The top of the box with a silvered-metal handle and the hinged door with silvered-metal fittings chased and incised with foliate designs against a ring-punched ground. The door opening to three drawers decorated with clouds and mountain peaks designs on nashiji, the interior of the door decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e with mura-nashiji and hirame to depict the man’s farmhouse.SIZE 10.6 x 8 x 11 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor wear, light surface scratches, minor age cracks.Provenance: Collection of Drs. Edmund and Julie Lewis, no. 98 (label to base). Bonhams, Property from the Collection of Drs. Edmund and Julie Lewis, Part I, 11 September 2019, lot 562. A private collection in New York, USA, acquired from the above. Drs. Edmund Jean and Julia Breyer Lewis are renowned experts in nephrology who met professionally and later married in 1997, and have since continued to collect Japanese art together, actively seeking the best they could find from the finest dealers in the field. Known for their keen scholarship and high aesthetic standards, for the past three decades Ed and Julie have focused on collecting lacquer art, painting, and Buddhist sculpture from Japan. As they traveled widely their desire to collect Buddhist art grew, and they have expanded their collection to include important Pan-religious sculptures from Greater Asia.Shitakiri Suzume, translated literally into ‘Tongue-Cut Sparrow’, is a traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife, and an injured sparrow. The story explores the effects of greed, friendship and jealousy on the characters.