Kumagai Kyoto Mixed-Metal Brass Box with Shakudo Sage Onlay, Meiji-Taisho

East Asia, Japan, Kyoto, Meiji to Taisho period. A round brass box with a gently domed lid. The lid is worked as a small landscape in mixed-metal onlay. A robed sage strides over rocky ground, one arm raised with a small object (perhaps a scroll case) and the other hand holding a bowl. His robe is black shakudo, picked out with gilt lozenge-lattice and scattered leaf patterns. Above him, a branching vine carries heart-shaped leaves in gilt copper alloy, nickel silver, and copper-gold alloy, each one autumn-tinted in its own metallic tone. An unrolled scroll lies on a ledge, and engraved grasses, bamboo, and a cascading rock face fill out the setting. The rim is gilt. The sage's bowl suggests a Buddhist rakan or a Daoist immortal, but the exact figure is uncertain. The box is inscribed Kyoto Kumagai zo, "Made by Kumagai, Kyoto." In the decades after 1876, an edict ended the samurai right to wear swords, which put fittings makers out of work. Many of these craftsmen in Kyoto and Tokyo turned to decorative metalwork for the domestic and export markets. Kyoto became especially known for inlay and onlay work in contrasting alloys. Shakudo, a copper alloy with a small amount of gold, was patinated to a deep blue-black. Silvery alloys and gilt metals were set beside it to give a painterly range of color on a single surface. Workshops such as the one marked Kumagai signed their pieces with the city name and the character zo ("made by"), a formula common on Meiji mixed-metal wares. Item # 205553

Estimate:$300

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