Mid- to Late-Edo Period(18 – 19 C)
Gift from the Homma family
This box features a sprinkled gold maki-e design on nashiji lacquer, to represent Hōrai (Penglai), a crane, a tortoise and the Tsugaru peony; the family crest of the Tsugaru family of the Hirosaki clan.
Penglai is a mountain (or island) where the Chinese concept of Shenxian thought (an ancient Chinese folk belief centering on the existence of ‘mountain wizards’ or gods) is taught. Like the crane and the turtle, it is often included in paintings as an auspicious motif.
Frequently used to decorate larger surfaces, nashiji––literally ‘pear-skin ground’––typically refers to the technique of scattering nashiji-ko, large, irregularly-shaped flakes of gold, over many layers of translucent orange-tinted lacquer. Polishing the lacquer exposes the flakes and results in an uneven surface texture, which is said to resemble the pear skins of its namesake.
The Honma family are thought to have received this box as a reward for their financial support of the Hirosaki clan.