Japanese lacquer box in the form of two books

An image of Box, lid and tray. Unknown maker, Japan. Box in the shape of two intersecting books, one open and one closed with a seated lid (A) and containing a tray (B). The open book is decorated in gold and silver-grey hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) and takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) and togidashi (brought out by polishing) with a mountainous landscape, trees, a waterfall, a bridge spanning a river and a pavilion on a black and gold powdered ground. The closed book is decorated in togidashi with gold flower heads on a black and gold powdered ground, with gold bindings and the title in a gold rectangular panel. The title reads `A View of Konensan `, the last character meaning 'complete in one volume.' The sides are finely decorated with intricate brocades of flower heads, leaves, ducks, fans and diaper patterns in gold, red and silver-grey on a black nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground. The tray is finely decorated in gold, red and silver-grey with sprays of autumn flowers and foliage on a black and gold powdered ground with a gold rim. The base of the tray is nashiji.The inside and the base are nashiji. Lacquer, decorated in hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design), takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), togidashi (brought out by polishing) and nashiji, height, whole, 4.0 cm, width, whole, 11.0 cm, length, whole, 11.8 cm, circa 1700-1868. Edo (1615-1868). Acquisition:

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Box, lid and tray. Unknown maker, Japan. Box in the shape of two intersecting books, one open and one closed with a seated lid (A) and containing a tray (B). The open book is decorated in gold and silver-grey hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) and takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) and togidashi (brought out by polishing) with a mountainous landscape, trees, a waterfall, a bridge spanning a river and a pavilion on a black and gold powdered ground. The closed book is decorated in togidashi with gold flower heads on a black and gold powdered ground, with gold bindings and the title in a gold rectangular panel. The title reads `A View of Konensan `, the last character meaning 'complete in one volume.' The sides are finely decorated with intricate brocades of flower heads, leaves, ducks, fans and diaper patterns in gold, red and silver-grey on a black nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground. The tray is finely decorated in gold, red and silver-grey with sprays of autumn flowers and foliage on a black and gold powdered ground with a gold rim. The base of the tray is nashiji.The inside and the base are nashiji. Lacquer, decorated in hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design), takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), togidashi (brought out by polishing) and nashiji, height, whole, 4.0 cm, width, whole, 11.0 cm, length, whole, 11.8 cm, circa 1700-1868. Edo (1615-1868). Acquisition:

Image data

Accession Number: MAR.O.81 & A & B-1912
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Katie Young
Image height: 850 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 137.51kB
Exposure time: 1/45
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1

Key words

18th Century 19th Century birds books box container diaper diapered ducks Edo Period falls Fitz_AA floral flowers foliage foliate gold hiramakie Japanese lacquer lacquered lacquering lacquerware landscape leaves lidded low relief mountain range mountainous mountains nashiji pavilion polished receptacle relief river takamakie togidashi waterfall

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Japanese lacquer box in the form of two books"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-214583 Accessed: 2024-12-26 21:53:25

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-214583
            |title=Japanese lacquer box in the form of two books
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-26 21:53:25|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-214581

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa40/large_MAR_O_81_20_26_20A_20_26_20B_1912_1_201512_kly25_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Box"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Japanese lacquer box in the form of two books</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>