Kanshitsu body made from cloth reinforced with lacquer; gold and aokin togidashi maki-e and gold foil inlay on a polished black-lacquer ground, the design continuing down the sides and onto the base; the interior surfaces gold nashiji

Signed inside with gold maki-e characters Yoshio tsukuru (Made by Yoshio)

With fitted kiri-wood tomobako storage box inscribed Tenshō maki-e kobako Sōun kyōgetsu (Small box with sprinkled design of celestial phenomena, “Layered Clouds, Full Moon”), signed Yoshio tsukuru (Made by Yoshio) and sealed Yoshio

In his series of Tenshō (Celestial Phenomena) boxes from 2018, reproduced here and on the following pages, Okada depicts four of the eight principal phases of the moon—from waxing crescent moon through half-moon and waxing gibbous moon to full moon—seen against a variety of night-time cloud formations. The moon is rendered in a variety of materials: the bright crescent moon in thinly cut shell; the half-moon in gold foil; the gibbous moon in the maki-e technique, using powdered gold of two different purities to achieve a shaded effect; and the full moon again in gold foil. As on his earlier Tenshō boxes, the dramatic cloud patterns are executed in the polished-out togidashi maki-e technique, using a varying combination of gold, silver, and colored fine hirame flakes.