Tebako or ornamental cosmetic box in a rectangular form with beveled corners and upper edges, ornamented on the exterior with branches of fruiting figs against a crimson sky. Of black, gold, and tan takamaki-e or raised lacquers, the interiors and the base in black lacquer decorated in gold flake nashiji lacquer. With applied silver mounts. Signed on the reverse of the lid in raised gold lacquer by the artist with the artist’s go or art name: Shitsutosai, and then: Shuho (Yoshiyama Shuho, from Ishikawa active circa early to mid 20th century). Early Showa era, circa 1935 – 1940.

With the tomobako or original storage box lacquered a deep maroon and inscribed on the exterior of the lid in red lacquer: Tebako or Ornamental Cosmetic Box, and then signed by the artist with his go or art name Shitsutosai and: Shuho.

This box was exhibited in Showa 22 or 1947 at the 3rd Nitten, and is listed in the exhibition catalogue though unpictured. Like many pieces exhibited in the first Nitten exhibitions after the Pacific War, it was almost certainly made prior to the most difficult war years.

Shuho borrows the ground of the box to suggest the glowing sky at sunset. Against this wave fig branches heavy with fruit, their leaves shadowed and gilt by the sun. One rarely sees this inversion of perspective in lacquer and it reflects a shift in the way artists looked at their work, a modernist evolution in design if you will. For another tebako with this rare motif, c.f. a mandarin orange motif box illustrated in Kagedo’s catalogue Arts of Imperial Japan, number 49, now in the collection of the Denver Art Museum.

The red and black color palette also echoes the jazzy textiles and tastes of the age. This striking effect appears rarely in lacquers before the 1930s, partly a reflection of aesthetics and partly a tribute to new pigments that solved the difficulty of executing a flawless orange-red expanse of lacquer. For other lacquers in this palette, c.f. Deco Japan, Shaping Art & Culture 1920 – 1945, numbers 47 – 51, 84, 94, 117, 121 & 122.