![A FINE KODAIJI-MAKI-E KODANSU [TABLE CABINET]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/CKS/2006_CKS_07256_0345_000(123151).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Kodaiji Lacquer has become a generic term for a type of lacquerware made in Kyoto during the late Momoyama and early Edo periods. The word Kodaiji refers to the temple which was built in 1606 by Kitano Mandokoro Kodai-in, the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), in which she would live her last days in quiet contemplative retirement and which would house a mausoleum devoted to the memory of her husband. After Hideyoshi's death the shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, granted the widow a generous annual stipend of rice, and assisted her with the building of the Kodaiji temple.
The temple contains pieces of lacquer which were used by Hideyoshi in his lifetime. This includes fourteen different kinds of 'hodo, or small items of furniture, food vessels, shelves, boxes, and writing equipment, most of which carry the pawlonia mon of the Toyotomi family. There are also architectural pieces used on and around an altar which contains two shrines for Hideyoshi and Kodai-in housed in a small mausoleum called the Mitamaya. The shrine devoted to Hideyoshi is thought to have been brought from his castle at Fushimi. Other pieces of lacquer have been lost in fires over the ages, or otherwise dispersed around shrine and temple collections in Kyoto, and some eventually reaching museum collections. The pieces in the Kodaiji collection itself are all registered as Juyo Bunkazai, reflecting the importance of Kodaiji-makie in general.
THE MAKERS
It is believed that Hideyoshi commissioned the Koami family to make the first Kodaiji lacquer. A signature on the door of the shrine devoted to Hideyoshi's memory has been read as Choan - Koami Kyujiro Choan (1569-1610), with a date in accordance with 1596. Although there is not universal agreement on the reading of this signature, Choan is known to have decorated a lacquer tray with a tree-bough and bird for Hideyoshi when he was only fifteen, and then two years later in 1586 to have made some lacquerware for use in the enthronement ceremony of the Emperor Goyozei. The Koami were very prestigious lacquerers in Kyoto at the time, and the dates fit well with Choan in his prime. The Kodaiji style became popular. It is believed that a number of lacquerers were employed by the Koami studio at the time, and that those artists continued to work independently in the Kodaiji style in the Karasuma district of Kyoto over the early decades of the 17th century. (The whole subject is treated in great detail in 'Kodaiji Lacquer' by Yoshimura Motoo, Kyoto National Museum, 1971)
THE KODAIJI STYLE
The Kodaiji style itself is characterized by expansive and expressive designs in gold hiramaki-e on a roiro, or black ground. The favoured subject was the classic Seven Grasses of Autumn of Court Art, but cherry, maple, pine, chrysanthemum, pawlonia and other plants and trees were also used. Hideyoshi rejected the poetic sophistication of the classic style in favour of a highly visual and exhuberant Momoyama period decorative style, and that is what characterizes Kodaiji ware. The decorations are now splashed freely across the composition in eye-catching designs without regard for literary convention. On some pieces the surface was separated by diagonal or zig-zagged lines into widely contrasting colour or design divisions. These divisions might be gold makie and black, or dense gold and nashiji (aventurine effect). This has been called katami-gawari after a Momoyama period penchant for clothing with similar broad divisions of colour and design. A similar statement might be effected, as on this box, with a diagonal alignment of the main decorative theme.
KODAIJI LACQUER TECHNIQUE
The lacquering technique used is hiramaki-e (level sprinkled- pictures) in which the design is formed in lacquer on the prepared and polished black lacquer ground. Gold dust is then sprinkled over the lacquer so that it will set when the lacquer hardens. This is known as maki-hanashi (leaving as sprinkled). The appearance might be enhanced by applying a further layer of lacquer over the design portions, and polishing those portions separately. This is time-consuming and was rarely done probably for that reason. Even so there is no doubt that the raw appearance of un-polished gold makie gives a depth and richness which would be lost if too much attention were paid to technical perfection. This is a major factor in the unique beauty of Kodaiji work. The same technique of freely painted hiramaki-e (but of varying quality) was used on lacquerware other than true Kodaiji ware, particularly on namban pieces. The namban pieces, however, generally have more crowded designs and invariably employ shell inlay, which is never found on Kodaiji work.
The lacquer illustration is usually applied with outlines which were either transferred from paper, or more often freely applied with a brush. The contrast of diagonal forms may be augmented by the contrast between areas of dense gold makie and areas of nashiji. When the gold makie has set hard the finer details can be applied with a brush, or scratched with a point (hari-gaki). All these techniques are used on the present box, and they, together with the lively design, make it a classic piece of Kodaiji work.
The box has a metal carrying handle, metal reinforcing fittings at the corners, and a frontal door which opens to reveal three drawers, of which the central is larger than the others. The lock has been repaired with a knop of sentoku. The overall decoration is of flowering shidare-zakura [weeping cherry] and maple boughs in gold maki-e, with stylized clouds, and nanten, sumire [violets], kikyo [balloonflower], bamboo and other grasses on small areas of ground. The larger shidare-zakura branches hang down as if to greet the much smaller maples rising from the ground in an amusing and imaginative juxtaposition.
The clouds, ground, boughs, leaves, and the flowers in various stages of bloom, are depicted variously with all the techniques described above. Outlines are painted, and the areas of maki-e are further decorated both by fine painting and scratching. The veins in the leaves and the stamens in the flowers in particular are finely depicted with these techniques. The clouds have minute geometrical motifs, including lozenges of the kind often described as lightning or matsukawa-bishi [pine bark lozenges]1, squares, triangles and short straight lines all similarly painted in fine brush and scratched into the maki-e.
The metal fittings of the box are of copper or yamagane, engraved with karakusa on a ground of nanako, and gilded, although most of the gilding has worn off over the ages.
1 The same multi-angled lozenge shape is used on a larger scale on a suzuri-bako which was published Kyoto National Museum, Kodaiji Lacquer, (Tokyo 1971), pl.45 from the Suntory Bijutsukan Collection.
For a box of similar shape and size with three drawers see Yoshimura Motoo, Kyoto National Museum, Kodaiji Lacquer, (Tokyo, 1971), pl.26 from the collection of the Yamato Bunka Kaikan.
The temple contains pieces of lacquer which were used by Hideyoshi in his lifetime. This includes fourteen different kinds of 'hodo, or small items of furniture, food vessels, shelves, boxes, and writing equipment, most of which carry the pawlonia mon of the Toyotomi family. There are also architectural pieces used on and around an altar which contains two shrines for Hideyoshi and Kodai-in housed in a small mausoleum called the Mitamaya. The shrine devoted to Hideyoshi is thought to have been brought from his castle at Fushimi. Other pieces of lacquer have been lost in fires over the ages, or otherwise dispersed around shrine and temple collections in Kyoto, and some eventually reaching museum collections. The pieces in the Kodaiji collection itself are all registered as Juyo Bunkazai, reflecting the importance of Kodaiji-makie in general.
THE MAKERS
It is believed that Hideyoshi commissioned the Koami family to make the first Kodaiji lacquer. A signature on the door of the shrine devoted to Hideyoshi's memory has been read as Choan - Koami Kyujiro Choan (1569-1610), with a date in accordance with 1596. Although there is not universal agreement on the reading of this signature, Choan is known to have decorated a lacquer tray with a tree-bough and bird for Hideyoshi when he was only fifteen, and then two years later in 1586 to have made some lacquerware for use in the enthronement ceremony of the Emperor Goyozei. The Koami were very prestigious lacquerers in Kyoto at the time, and the dates fit well with Choan in his prime. The Kodaiji style became popular. It is believed that a number of lacquerers were employed by the Koami studio at the time, and that those artists continued to work independently in the Kodaiji style in the Karasuma district of Kyoto over the early decades of the 17th century. (The whole subject is treated in great detail in 'Kodaiji Lacquer' by Yoshimura Motoo, Kyoto National Museum, 1971)
THE KODAIJI STYLE
The Kodaiji style itself is characterized by expansive and expressive designs in gold hiramaki-e on a roiro, or black ground. The favoured subject was the classic Seven Grasses of Autumn of Court Art, but cherry, maple, pine, chrysanthemum, pawlonia and other plants and trees were also used. Hideyoshi rejected the poetic sophistication of the classic style in favour of a highly visual and exhuberant Momoyama period decorative style, and that is what characterizes Kodaiji ware. The decorations are now splashed freely across the composition in eye-catching designs without regard for literary convention. On some pieces the surface was separated by diagonal or zig-zagged lines into widely contrasting colour or design divisions. These divisions might be gold makie and black, or dense gold and nashiji (aventurine effect). This has been called katami-gawari after a Momoyama period penchant for clothing with similar broad divisions of colour and design. A similar statement might be effected, as on this box, with a diagonal alignment of the main decorative theme.
KODAIJI LACQUER TECHNIQUE
The lacquering technique used is hiramaki-e (level sprinkled- pictures) in which the design is formed in lacquer on the prepared and polished black lacquer ground. Gold dust is then sprinkled over the lacquer so that it will set when the lacquer hardens. This is known as maki-hanashi (leaving as sprinkled). The appearance might be enhanced by applying a further layer of lacquer over the design portions, and polishing those portions separately. This is time-consuming and was rarely done probably for that reason. Even so there is no doubt that the raw appearance of un-polished gold makie gives a depth and richness which would be lost if too much attention were paid to technical perfection. This is a major factor in the unique beauty of Kodaiji work. The same technique of freely painted hiramaki-e (but of varying quality) was used on lacquerware other than true Kodaiji ware, particularly on namban pieces. The namban pieces, however, generally have more crowded designs and invariably employ shell inlay, which is never found on Kodaiji work.
The lacquer illustration is usually applied with outlines which were either transferred from paper, or more often freely applied with a brush. The contrast of diagonal forms may be augmented by the contrast between areas of dense gold makie and areas of nashiji. When the gold makie has set hard the finer details can be applied with a brush, or scratched with a point (hari-gaki). All these techniques are used on the present box, and they, together with the lively design, make it a classic piece of Kodaiji work.
The box has a metal carrying handle, metal reinforcing fittings at the corners, and a frontal door which opens to reveal three drawers, of which the central is larger than the others. The lock has been repaired with a knop of sentoku. The overall decoration is of flowering shidare-zakura [weeping cherry] and maple boughs in gold maki-e, with stylized clouds, and nanten, sumire [violets], kikyo [balloonflower], bamboo and other grasses on small areas of ground. The larger shidare-zakura branches hang down as if to greet the much smaller maples rising from the ground in an amusing and imaginative juxtaposition.
The clouds, ground, boughs, leaves, and the flowers in various stages of bloom, are depicted variously with all the techniques described above. Outlines are painted, and the areas of maki-e are further decorated both by fine painting and scratching. The veins in the leaves and the stamens in the flowers in particular are finely depicted with these techniques. The clouds have minute geometrical motifs, including lozenges of the kind often described as lightning or matsukawa-bishi [pine bark lozenges]
The metal fittings of the box are of copper or yamagane, engraved with karakusa on a ground of nanako, and gilded, although most of the gilding has worn off over the ages.
1 The same multi-angled lozenge shape is used on a larger scale on a suzuri-bako which was published Kyoto National Museum, Kodaiji Lacquer, (Tokyo 1971), pl.45 from the Suntory Bijutsukan Collection.
For a box of similar shape and size with three drawers see Yoshimura Motoo, Kyoto National Museum, Kodaiji Lacquer, (Tokyo, 1971), pl.26 from the collection of the Yamato Bunka Kaikan.