Tebako or ornamental accessory box in a coffered, rectangular form, ornamented with a design of a fishing creel basket and marsh grasses. Of gold and silver takamakie-e or raised lacquers against a roiro or mirror-polished black lacquer ground, the interiors in tan-colored (titanium-pigmented) colored lacquer. Signed on the reverse in raised gold lacquer by the artist: Naoji Saku or Made by Naoji (Terai Naoji, 1912 – 1998). Showa 18 or 1943.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Biku Tebako or Creel Basket (Design) Ornamental Accessory Box; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Naoji Saku or Made by Naoji, and sealed.

This tebako was made for exhibition at the 6th Shin-Bunten in Showa 18 (1943), and it is illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 15, page 369, number 244, where it is titled: Biku no Zu Tebako or Creel Basket Design Ornamental Accessory Box.

Born in Kanazawa, Terai Naoji graduated from the Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Higher School in 1930. He then moved to Tokyo to study at the Tokyo School of Fine Art where he became a trusted student of Matsuda Gonroku, graduating from the lacquer department in 1935. The following year, Naoji first exhibited at the government-sponsored exhibitions. From 1936, he began working for the Physics and Chemistry Research Institute, studying the production of export lacquer ware at the firm’s Shizuoka plant from 1937. In 1941, he became head of the firm’s crafts department. After a short induction into the military, he was discharged in 1946 and set up as an independent artist. He exhibited at the Nitten that year, and continued to show at this venue until 1957. In 1950, Naoji returned to the Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Higher School as an instructor. In 1955, he received the Hokuto Award at the Nitten and exhibited for the first time at the 2nd Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition. From this point onward in his career, Naoji exhibited annually with the Japan Traditional Crafts Association, becoming a director in 1959. In 1968, he received the Hokkoku Cultural Award from Ishikawa Prefecture and, in 1970, the Kanazawa City Cultural Award. In 1972 – 1973, he held the first directorship of the Ishikawa Prefectural Wajima Institute of Lacquer Art. In 1977, he was designated the holder of a prefectural intangible cultural property for Kaga maki-e by Ishikawa Prefecture. In 1985, Terai Naoji was designated Juyo Mukei Bunkazai or Important Intangible Cultural Asset (commonly known as a Living National Treasure) for his maki-e or sprinkled picture decoration technique.

For other examples of his work, c.f. the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo catalogue Japanese Lacquer Art: Modern Masterpieces, numbers 71 and 99, and Kogei – A View of a Century of Modern Japanese Crafts, number 203.

A rare exhibition piece from Terai Naoji’s formative years, this tebako magnifies the design so that it entirely occupies the foreground. This modernist perspective balances the painterly and mysterious treatment. The muted coloration of the silver and gold lacquers may be meant to suggest moonlight, the creel basket the large baskets used for cormorant fishing on the Nagare River in Gifu. Very subtle curves soften and define the edges of the box.