千鳥松蒔絵香合|Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers

Unknown

early 14th century · Lacquered wood with gold togidashimaki-e on nashiji (“pear-skin” ground) · Asian Art

Like many other tea-ceremony incense boxes, this work might have originally been part of a twelve-piece cosmetic box set (jūnitebako), where it would have served as a container for tooth-blackening material. This meticulously crafted small box is decorated with an auspicious composition of plovers and evergreen pine trees on a seashore scattered with shells. Plovers are associated with longevity because their cry, chiyo, is a homonym for “a thousand years.”

Artist

Unknown

Date

early 14th century

Medium

Lacquered wood with gold togidashimaki-e on nashiji (“pear-skin” ground)

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015