13 - SHIOMI MASANARI: A FINE FOUR-CASE INLAID TOGIDASHI LACQUER ‘ROSEI’S DREAM’ INRO

SHIOMI MASANARI: A FINE FOUR-CASE INLAID TOGIDASHI LACQUER ‘ROSEI’S DREAM’ INRO Lineage of Shiomi Masanari (1647-1722), signed Shiomi Masanari 鹽見 政誠 Japan, 18 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Of upright rectangular form and lenticular section, the ground graduating from lustrous reddish-brown lacquer above to richly sprinkled gold nashiji below. One side is finely decorated in gold, silver, and iro-e takamaki-e and hiramaki-e with Rosei reclining asleep upon a low Chinese table, enveloped in voluminous robes and holding a fan delicately inlaid in mother-of-pearl, his face subtly visible through the translucent shell. Two long peacock feathers rise beside him, while a small writing set rests nearby. The reverse reveals Rosei’s dream with remarkable restraint, worked in fine sumi togidashi-e as a distant procession with attendants and a palanquin, seemingly floating against the dark lacquer ground. Signed next to the tsuishu table within the typical red-lacquered reserve SHIOMI MASANARI. The interior cases are finished in tortoiseshell lacquer with gold fundame rims. With a carved and lacquered ojime. HEIGHT 8.8 cm, LENGTH 5.4 cm Provenance: Collection of the Moller family, Aptos, California, United States, thence by descent. A private collection in United States, acquired from the above in 2011. Condition: Very good condition with only minor wear to case edges and light rubbing to lacquer as visible in the images provided. In the original eighth-century Chinese tale, Rosei (Lu Sheng) leaves his village in pursuit of worldly success. The story later inspired the fifteenth-century Japanese Noh play Kantan, in which Rosei falls asleep at an inn while awaiting his meal and dreams of attaining immense wealth and power, his imagined life unfolding over fifty years. Awakened to discover that only a brief moment has passed, he recognizes the transience of worldly ambition and returns home enlightened. The present inro captures the pivotal contrast between the sleeping Rosei and the splendid procession unfolding only within his dream. Shiomi Masanari (1647-1722) was trained as a painter of the Kano school but became celebrated above all for his lacquer work and for founding the important Shiomi family of lacquerers. Whether or not he was a pupil of Yamamoto Shunsho (1610-1682), as traditionally believed, the Shiomi family became particularly renowned for exceptionally refined togidashi maki-e, a technique displayed to particularly subtle effect on the reverse of the present inro. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related four-case lacquer inro depicting Rosei’s dream, by Koma Kyuhaku, 8.5 cm high, at Bonhams, The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art, Part I, 9 November 2010, London, lot 269 (sold for GBP 8,160 or approx. EUR 15,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).