Shikishi-bako or ornamental box for small shikishi paintings and calligraphy, in a rectangular form decorated with a pair of cormorants perched on rocks amid serried waves. Of black and green lacquers; the waves and frames of hammered, cold-chiseled and inlaid silver; the cormorants of hammered iron with gilt details on the cheek feathers, their feet of hammered and inlaid shibuichi; the rocks of hammered, cold-chiseled and inlaid silver; the interiors of paulownia wood finished in shunkei lacquer; and the reverse in roiro, mirror-polished black lacquer. Signed with a chiseled signature on an inlaid silver tablet on the reverse by the artist: Nankai Saku or Made by Nankai (Matsubara Nankai, the go or art name of Matsubara Shigenobu, 1895 – 1950). Showa 7 or 1932.

With a niju-bako or original double box, inscribed on the exterior of the inner lid: U no Zu Shikishi-bako or Cormorant Motif Shikishi Box; and on the reverse of the inner box lid signed: Nankai Saku or Made by Nankai, and sealed: Nankai. Inside the box is finely written note: Kenjohin U no Zu Shikishi-bako, Nankai Kinsaku, Asaka no Miyake Kyuzo or Presentation Shikishi Box in a Cormorant Motif, Finely Made by Nankai, From the Collection of Prince Asaka.

This box was exhibited at the 13th Teiten in 1932 and is illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 10, page 470, number 172.

For the artist’s 1933 exhibition work shown at the 14th Teiten, c.f. Kagedo’s catalogue Yukei, number 137.

From Tokyo, Matsubara Nankai graduated from the Kogei School in Taisho 2 (1913) and studied metal carving under Shoami Katsuyoshi and Nakagawa Joeki X, and later with Tsuchida Katsunari. He learned hammering techniques from Maruo Tsunayoshi and Shimizu Nanzan. After graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Art in 1922, he adopted the go or art name of Nankai. His work was first accepted into the government-sponsored exhibitions at the 11th Teiten in 1930. Subsequently he showed at the 12th – 14th Teiten in 1931 – 1933, at the Reorganized Teiten in the spring of 1936, at the 3rd Shin-Bunten in1939, the Hoshukuten in 1940, and the 4th and 6th Shin-Bunten in 1941 and 1943. After the Pacific War, Nankai returned to the national exhibitions with the 2nd Nitten in 1946, the 3rd in 1947 (when he took the tokusen or grand prize), and at the 5th and 6th in 1949 and the year he died, 1950.

For Matsubara Nankai, this cormorant and wave box represented an important exhibition piece. The motif bridges the traditional and the modernist. Realistically rendered cormorants stand amid stylized, modernist waves. Hammered in relief and inlaid, the birds contrast dramatically with the flattened, repetitive perspective of the waves. These he details with chiseled lines of silver, rising in straight, curving lines on the top and uneven, wavering edges on the bottom. Using his chisel like a brush for ink painting, Nankai textures the surface of the rocks as light plays over them and contrasts with the flatter, wave washed sides. Just as the surface of the cormorants remains faintly stippled by the artist, the surface of the green sea shivers with movement. Rather than layer and polish the green lacquer like a mirror, Nankai textures it like fine leather by allowing it to echo the hammered silver support beneath. This musical repetition of the chisel to different effect subtly unifies the work and reminds one of the modern idea that form and function relate to materials and technique.

The straight grain of fine paulownia lines the interior like the boards of boat. Honey-toned, shunkei lacquer warms the surface. The contrast with the cool palette and imagery of the exterior reminds one that here poems and small paintings were meant to stay dry and safe.

Cormorants call on a lonely rock on the edge of the sea. The birds stare mesmerized out to the horizon alone with wind and wave. This imagery spoke poetically to many artists of the era. Paintings, lacquer and metalwork take up the theme repeatedly between the turn of the century and the Pacific War. In some way it must have echoed the stark sense of how people stood alone in time, facing modernity. In another it recalls the traditional theme of Natorigawa and plovers flying over barren beaches, framed by endless waves.

As indicated by the notation in the box, these cormorants and waves were destined for Asaka no Miya. Prince Asaka was the son-in-law of the Meiji Emperor and related by marriage to the Showa Emperor. From 1920 – 1923, he studied at the Saint Cyr Military Academy in France. An automobile accident in Normandy on April 1, 1923 seriously injured Prince Asaka and left him with a limp for the rest of his life. During his recovery he was joined by the Princess Asaka and the pair became enamored of the new Art Deco movement in France. On their return to Japan, they began building a new Art Deco style residence in the Shirokanedai neighborhood of Tokyo. The palace was completed in May of 1933, though the Princess died only months later. Either they purchased this box at the Teiten Exhibition in 1932, or it was purchased from the artist as a presentation gift to the couple. By 1932, Prince Asaka was an instructor at the Army Staff College, with the rank of major general and an important member of the Imperial family. His Art Deco residence is now a public museum, the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

For a link to the museum’s web site, see: http://www.teien-art-museum.ne.jp/en/.