Makino Kōmin
Accessory Box with Hydrangea Design, 1930s
Gold, silver and colored lacquer on wood with shell inlays
Size 8 x 12½ x 7½ in. (20.5 x 32 x 19.3 cm)
T-4854
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A tebako (accessory box) of rectilinear form with rounded corners and inrōbuta (flush-fitting) lid, the exterior with a rich red-lacquer ground decorated on the top and sides with flowers, stems,...
A tebako (accessory box) of rectilinear form with rounded corners and inrōbuta (flush-fitting) lid, the exterior with a rich red-lacquer ground decorated on the top and sides with flowers, stems, and leaves of hydrangea, executed in textured gold, silver, and colored takamaki-e and hiramaki-e embellished with fine gold kinpun, the whole of the interior lacquered black and decorated with a continuous regular pattern of stylized floral motifs in gold hiramaki-e and kinpun and shell
Comes with its original fitted paulownia-wood tomobako storage box inscribed Hassenka maki-e tebako (Accessory Box with Maki-e Design of Hydrangeas), signed Makino Kōmin saku (Made by Makino Kōmin), and sealed Kōmin; paper label with the same title
Following a precedent established a couple of decades earlier by leading lacquer artists such as Akatsuka Jitoku (1871-1936), the decoration of this magnificent box is strongly weighted toward the lower right-hand corner and front of the exterior. The takamaki-e lacquer is applied in unusually high relief and the depiction of the flowerheads seems almost painterly, suggesting that the artist might have broken with technical precedent by using a brush to apply a mixture of lacquer and gold dust to convey the striking appearance of Hydrangea macrophylla, with its large peripheral four-petaled flowers and smaller five-petaled florets.
No information has come to light concerning the life and career of the artist, Makino Kōmin. This may seem surprising given the very high quality of this piece but several other outstanding works of lacquer art dating from the 1920s and 1930s published in recent catalogues bear signatures of similarly obscure artists, for example Satō Kansai, Hashimoto Sakai, Adachi Kihō, and Satō Kansai (see below, Brown, Deco Japan, cat. nos. 51 and 112 and Dees, Breaking Out of Tradition, cat. nos. 48 and 62. Although executed in a somewhat more stylized manner than the present piece, a box by Adachi Kihō (Dees, cat. no. 48) offers some striking parallels, while the contrast between pictorial motifs on the exterior and an intricate repeat-pattern design on the interior is a feature of many lacquers exhibited at major exhibitions during this period.
References
Kendall H. Brown, Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920–1945, Alexandria, Va. Art Services International, 2012
Jan Dees, Breaking Out of Tradition: Japanese Lacquer 1890–1950, Münster, Museum für Lackkunst, 2020
Comes with its original fitted paulownia-wood tomobako storage box inscribed Hassenka maki-e tebako (Accessory Box with Maki-e Design of Hydrangeas), signed Makino Kōmin saku (Made by Makino Kōmin), and sealed Kōmin; paper label with the same title
Following a precedent established a couple of decades earlier by leading lacquer artists such as Akatsuka Jitoku (1871-1936), the decoration of this magnificent box is strongly weighted toward the lower right-hand corner and front of the exterior. The takamaki-e lacquer is applied in unusually high relief and the depiction of the flowerheads seems almost painterly, suggesting that the artist might have broken with technical precedent by using a brush to apply a mixture of lacquer and gold dust to convey the striking appearance of Hydrangea macrophylla, with its large peripheral four-petaled flowers and smaller five-petaled florets.
No information has come to light concerning the life and career of the artist, Makino Kōmin. This may seem surprising given the very high quality of this piece but several other outstanding works of lacquer art dating from the 1920s and 1930s published in recent catalogues bear signatures of similarly obscure artists, for example Satō Kansai, Hashimoto Sakai, Adachi Kihō, and Satō Kansai (see below, Brown, Deco Japan, cat. nos. 51 and 112 and Dees, Breaking Out of Tradition, cat. nos. 48 and 62. Although executed in a somewhat more stylized manner than the present piece, a box by Adachi Kihō (Dees, cat. no. 48) offers some striking parallels, while the contrast between pictorial motifs on the exterior and an intricate repeat-pattern design on the interior is a feature of many lacquers exhibited at major exhibitions during this period.
References
Kendall H. Brown, Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920–1945, Alexandria, Va. Art Services International, 2012
Jan Dees, Breaking Out of Tradition: Japanese Lacquer 1890–1950, Münster, Museum für Lackkunst, 2020