Kazari-bako or decorative box in a rectangular form set on short, pedestal-style legs, the sides and top decorated in deep relief with stylized marsh grasses and droplets of dew, the lid surmounted in high-relief with a flying, modernist kingfisher. The frame and outlines of the grasses of hammered silver, the grass interiors inlaid in shibuichi, the backgrounds of shakudo, the dew drops of hammered silver with touches of gilt, the kingfisher of shakudo inlaid in two colors of gold, shibuichi, silver, and red bronze, the interior lined in purple velvet. Inscribed and signed with a chiseled signature on the reverse: Showa Roku-nen Saku, Sobashima Minoru or Made in the 6th Year of the Showa (era), (by) Sobashima Minoru Sobashima Minoru, active in Tokyo early 20th century). Showa 6 or 1931.

With a double tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the outer box lid: Kazari-bako, Gin Shakudo Shibuichi Kin Zogan or Ornamental Box, Inlaid in Silver, Shakudo, Shibuichi and Gold, and signed: Sobashima Minoru Saku or Made by Sobashima Minoru. Included in the box is the original exhibition label for the piece.

This box was made for exhibition at the 12th Teiten in Showa 6 or 1931, and it is illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 10, page 282, number 99, where it is titled: Hisui Kazari-bako or Kingfisher Ornamental Box.

Sobashima Minoru worked in Tokyo, and exhibited at the government-sponsored exhibitions three times: this box at the 12th Teiten in 1931; a cylindrical, flaring vase at the 13th Teiten in 1932 (Nittenshi, volume 10, page 461, number 111); and a globular vase with a stylized, running stag inlaid on the side at the 14th Teiten in 1933 (Nittenshi, volume 11, page 278, number 131).

This spectacular box revisits a traditional motif and transforms it with a modernist idiom. Across the lid a kingfisher glides, fishing over dew-laden marsh grass. An array of chevrons renders the bird’s feathers, while a strongly linear treatment of its form and features completes the stylization. The artist elevates the relief to bring the outlines of the kingfisher, grasses and dew into prominence. Geometric components possess visual weight almost equal to the imagery they detail. Contrasting alloys and metals heighten this effect: so grey-green shibuichi flattens the center of the silver-bordered grass; shakudo and gold compete with silver and red bronze in the kingfisher; while the ground of shakudo water breaks into angular shapes outlined by the silver grass and punctuated by silver droplets. By the 1930s one rarely sees artists lavishing precious metals and time-consuming inlays like these on their work. No doubt this was partly a matter of expense in an increasingly difficult economy. Sobashima Minoru refused to compromise, so his kingfisher box remains a glittering tribute to tradition from the most modern of perspectives.