Bunchin or paperweight in the form of a resting hare, carved of bamboo with inlaid amber eyes. Chinese, Late Ming Dynasty, early 17th century.

A double storage box and fitted silk brocade bag accompany this scholar’s object. On the exterior of the lid to the outer box is inscribed: Kochiku Usagi Chinshi, Heiyo Chabakari or Old Bamboo Rabbit Paper Weight, Also Used as a Tea Scoop, dated to Teii Shungetsu or A Spring Month in the Year of the Boar (1862), also inscribed: Beisankyo Chinseisaku or Treasured Object in the Studio of Beisan, and sealed Studio of Beisan and Enjoyment of Beisan. Written on the outside of the lid to the interior box is: Take Usagi Chabakari or Bamboo Rabbit Tea Scoop. The reverse of this interior lid bears a couplet by Murata Kokoku in Chinese: The Jade Hare exists in the moon, the Bamboo Hare dwells in the silk bag. The lid is sealed: Kokoku on the left, and on the right: Beisankyo or Studio of Beisan, and Uchiku Seisho or Pure Pleasure of Uchiku. Made to slip about the rabbit perfectly, the silk bag closes with a string in the manner of bags made for treasured tea caddies for Matcha Tea Ceremony, and is also sealed on the interior by the collector Uchiku Seisho or Pure Praise of Uchiku.

Murata Kokoku (1831 – 1912) was a noted Nanga School painter and accomplished poet. He taught at the Kyoto Municipal School of Fine Arts and Crafts. In the Sencha Tea Ceremony tradition it was not uncommon for connoisseurs and their friends to inscribe their appreciations on the storage boxes of treasured objects. A document folded inside the box bears an attestation by Kokoku written when he was an old man, explaining that this rabbit was treasured by his friend, the old Uchiku, (the Go or art name of Mr. Yanagawa, who also used the studio name Beisankyo). The respected elder manager of a Sencha shop in Osaka and noted antique art collector, Uchiku also left a document folded in the box inscribed: Minsei Takebori Usagi Chago or Ming Dynasty Carved Bamboo Rabbit Tea Scoop, and then signed Uchiku, and sealed.

This highly regarded paperweight could function as a tea scoop since the reverse of the bamboo curves in a hollow. The two friends must have first left their appreciations on the boxes over Sencha Tea in 1862. Kokoku would have been 31 at the time. Late in his life, concerned that his friend Uchiku be remembered, he folded his attestation into the box.

Carved with a naive charm, the skin and texture of the bamboo suggest the fur of the hare. Warm color and softness from long handling enrich the surface. A material long prized for ornaments in scholars’ studios, the bamboo for this rabbit was also inlaid with precious amber eyes.