6 - KAJIKAWA: A FINE THREE-CASE RITSUO-STYLE INLAID LACQUER ‘AUSPICIOUS ELEPHANT’ INRO

KAJIKAWA: A FINE THREE-CASE RITSUO-STYLE INLAID LACQUER ‘AUSPICIOUS ELEPHANT’ INRO By a member of the Kajikawa family, signed Kajikawa 梶川 saku 作 with a red pot seal Ei 榮 Japan, 18th-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Of upright rectangular form with lenticular section and gently rounded edges, bearing a lustrous roiro ground, finely decorated in gold, silver, and colored takamaki-e and hiramaki-e and richly inlaid with mother-of-pearl, pewter, and carved red lacquer (tsuishu), the design taken from an old Chinese ink cake. One side depicts a richly caparisoned elephant standing in profile, its elaborate trappings picked out in varied relief and contrasting materials. The reverse is centered by a square gold panel inscribed with the four Chinese characters 太平有象 [In an age of great peace, auspicious signs appear,], the final character 象, meaning both ‘image/sign’ and ‘elephant,’ forming an auspicious pictorial pun with the subject on the obverse. The interior cases are lacquered roiro with gold fundame rims. The underside signed in gold lacquer KAJIKAWA saku [made by Kajikawa] with a red pot seal EI. HEIGHT 8.3 cm, LENGTH 6.2 cm Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York, United States. Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple married in 1975. Together they assembled an important collection over more than half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of major institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Their collection of Japanese art was particularly distinguished, with an emphasis on fine netsuke, inro, and lacquer. Condition: Good condition with minor expected wear and occasional small bruises to the lacquered ground, a small area of discoloration beside the tusks, a tiny loss to the mother-of-pearl inlay, and minor chips to the cord holes. Presenting beautifully. The design of the present inro belongs to the distinctive tradition associated with Ogawa Haritsu, better known by his sobriquet Ritsuo (1663-1747), whose work transformed Japanese lacquer through the imaginative combination of traditional maki-e with an extraordinary range of inlaid materials. Exploiting the adhesive properties of lacquer, Haritsu incorporated glazed ceramic, metal, shell, carved lacquer, and other materials into compositions of strikingly sculptural effect. Particularly important to his aesthetic were Chinese antiquarian sources, including designs derived from old ink cakes and their illustrated compendia, most notably the Fangshi Mopu of 1588. Such designs were widely adapted in Japanese lacquer, and the combination of a caparisoned elephant with an auspicious Chinese inscription seen here belongs directly to this visual tradition. Haritsu’s innovations were continued by a number of accomplished followers, foremost among them Mochizuki Hanzan (1743-?1790), who styled himself Haritsu II in homage to Ritsuo despite being neither his son nor his pupil. Hanzan similarly combined lacquer with ceramic, shell, metal, and other inlays, helping to perpetuate the distinctive Ritsuo idiom into the later eighteenth century. Its influence continued throughout the Edo period and experienced a renewed flowering during the nineteenth century, most famously in the work of Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891). The present inro is an especially fine demonstration of the manner in which this inventive Ritsuo aesthetic was absorbed and reinterpreted by members of the prestigious Kajikawa dynasty. Museum comparison: Compare a closely related inro depicting a caparisoned elephant on the obverse and a panel of Chinese characters on the reverse, similarly executed in lacquer with ceramic inlay, dated to the 18th-19th century, 7.5 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number 29.100.755. The museum catalogues the design under Fangshi Mopu, reflecting its derivation from the celebrated Chinese compendium of ink-cake designs. Auction comparison: Compare a related three-case lacquered and ceramic-inlaid wood inro depicting a caparisoned elephant, by Ogawa Haritsu, dated to the 18th century, 8 cm high, at Bonhams, The Harriet Szechenyi Sale of Japanese Art, 8 November 2011, London, lot 274 (sold for GBP 10,000 or approx. EUR 18,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).