Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 9. (Budapest, 1966)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: Two Japanese Lacquer Boxes of the Early 18th Century
3. Tebako, early 17th century, Ishibe-jinja, Ishikawa-ken (U. A. Casal, op. cit. fig. 25). Through the intermittent alteration of two different surfaces, smooth and compact, coarse and thinly set, this technique is based upen textural or fracturai contrasts. To-day we pay more attention to stylistic accomplishments of this kind because, starting with cubist painting, similar problems of style are again occuring in arts. Primarily in the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th, the integration of lacquered surfaces by more or less densely woven cloth surfaces obviously took place in the same sense. A completely polished lacquered surface does not unconditionally cause an absolute esthetic pleasure, or not in every case, a disadvantage that can be particularly well observed on pieces made in the second half of the 19th century. (The situation improved when a number of new colours, including bright ones, were successfully used in lacquer painting.) The monotonous effect of the gold lacquer surface is less felt in the case of Fujiwara-Kamakura pieces, here the brilliance of lacquer was already moderated by a subdued tonality. In the case of the lacquers of the 16th-17th centuries, it is clearly felt that the use of takamaki-e wished to eliminate this disadvantage of gold lacquer by emphasizing certain points out of the monotone surface. The preference of the Korean variant of mother-ofpearl inlays consisted obviously that larger size pieces were used with a slightly protuberant and not fully polished surface. In opposition to the style of earlier centuries, these are no small pieces of ornamentation any more, but self-contained elements within the frame of lacquer-work, by way of a remote analogy, comparable to Indian jade cups inlaid with garnet. Taking into account the condition and the colour of lacquer, the specimen of the Museum may be dated from the beginning of the 18th century. In different collections, including our own, there are several later pieces of similar style, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Such pieces are generally called lacquers of the Körin style, 5 perhaps for simplicity's sake, although the correct term would be the Köetsu-Sötatsu-Körin style. The representative work of Ogata Körin (1658—1716) is a suzuribako with Yaso-bashi-iris (Tökyö, National Museum). This can be found practically in every manual of Japanese art. However, the style of Körin is rather the transplantation of the typical styling of his paintings as lacquer motifs, including also the works of two great predecessors, Köetsu and Sötatsu. Yoshino Tomio mentions Tsuchida Söetsu (1660—1742) and Seitsu, as well as Nagata Yüji (active 1711—1736) among the lacquer masters of the Körin school. 6 For want of a signature, the master of our piece cannot be identified. All we know about the above-mentioned masters is so little that we cannot try to attribute it to any of them. Thus, the suzuribako in question cannot supply more than a contribution to the lacquer style of a period — presumably the beginning of the 18th century — and to the question of the survival of the Köetsu style in this period. 5 Cf. the bean motif with gold lacquer, inlaid nacre and inlaid lead, on unlacquered wood surface, W. Harding Smith, A Description and History of Japanese Lacquer, Down to the End of the Genroku Period, 1681 —1709. Transactions and Proceedings of the Japanese Society London, VII/1905 — 1906, pp. 282 — 303, pi. VI(B). Collection of M. Tomkinson. 6 Op. cit. p. 46.
