Yuan/Ming dynasties (16-17C), China
Gift from the Homma family
Fèi Chángfáng was a Daoist hermit featured in the Biographies of the Deities and Immortals, an ancient Chinese hagiography of immortals and descriptions of Chinese gods. The carving depicts him riding on the back of a crane, gracefully soaring through the sky while unrolling a scroll of sutras. On September 5, 1887, the sixth-generation head of the Homma family, Kōbi Homma, received this item from the Sakai family, former lords of the Shonai domain. The box is marked with the Sakai family’s warehouse number, “57.”