A gold-lacquer three-case inro


By Shibata Zeshin (1807–1891), Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1870–1890An inro with three interlocking cases and cover, of lenticular cross-section with straight sides, rounded corners, curved top and base, and integrated cord-runners, the gold fundame lacquer ground decorated in silver and black togidashi maki-e, hiramaki-e, and takamaki-e with tetsusabi-nuri depicting on one side a carp swimming up a waterfall and on the other side water splashing over a crag, each side also with small flowers and plants, the compartments and risers gold nashiji, the shoulders and rims gold fundame; painted stone ojime with gilt-metal mounts; signed in kebori on the base Zeshin; with a fitted wooden storage box and paper label from the Zeshin Hyakunijunen Tsuizen Kinen Tenkan (Zeshin 120th Anniversary Display, see below). 7.5cm x 4.9cm x 1.7cm (3in x 1 7/8in x 5/8in). (3).
|ExhibitedShibata Zeshin o Shinobu Kai (Exhibition in Memory of Shibata Zeshin), Okyokan Building, Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (Tokyo National Museum), Tokyo, 18 July 2011Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum), Tokyo, 1 November–16 December 2012PublishedNezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum), Shibata Zeshin no shikko, urushi-e kaiga (Shibata Zeshin: From Lacquer Arts to Painting), Tokyo, 2012, cat. no.80In Zeshin's time, the ancient Chinese image of a carp or other large fish ascending a waterfall in the upper reaches of the Yellow River was an emblem of success especially associated with the Tango no sekku or Boys' Day Festival. For another inro by Zeshin executed in similar techniques and depicting carp, compare an example sold in these rooms May of last year (Bonhams 2017, lot 83). That inro bore a signature explicitly attributing the design to the great eighteenth-century Kyoto painter Maruyama Okyo (1733–1795) and the present lot is one of several more works by Zeshin that incorporate carp-related subjects derived from paintings by him. For a classic treatment by Okyo, see Osaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan (Osaka Municipal Museum of Art), Maruyama Okyo: Shaseiga sozo e no chosen (Maruyama Okyo: Shaseiga, Challenging a New Frontier), exhibition catalogue, 2004, cat. no.27, a pair of scrolls of carp, one of them with a carp swimming in calm waters and the other with a carp ascending a waterfall, as here. For a painted depiction by Zeshin himself of a carp ascending a waterfall, see Goke Tadaomi, Shibata Zeshin meihinshu: Bakumatsu kaikaki no shikko kaiga (Lacquer and Painting in Late Edo and Early Meiji: A Collection of Masterworks by Shibata Zeshin), Tokyo, Gakushu Kenkyusha, 1981, cat. no.249.