Decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e, togidashi and inlays of mother-of-pearl against a black lacquer ground with a stylised depiction of pine trees on a shoreline, the interior with plovers (chidori) in flight against a nashiji ground, lead rims, the base sparse nashiji
7.6 x 7.6 x 4.1 cm. (3 x 3 x 1⁵⁄₈ in.)

Charles A. Greenfield Collection, no. 14.
Mrs D. A. Stevens Collection.
Sotheby's, London, Very Fine Japanese Lacquer Wares, 6th October 1971, Lot 107.
Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1990.
Christie's, New York, Japanese Art Including Property of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 28th March 2006, Lot 376.

H. P. Stern, The Magnificent Three: Lacquer, Netsuke and Tsuba, Selections from the Collection of Charles A. Greenfield, (New York, 1972), no. 15 (Boxes).
Andrew J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection, exh. cat., (New York, 1980), fig. 35
Eskenazi Ltd., The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer, (London, 1990), no. 22, p. 61.

Japan House Gallery, New York, The Magnificent Three: Lacquer, Netsuke and Tsuba, Selections from the Collection of Charles A. Greenfield, 1972.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), New York, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection, 1980.

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Lot Essay

The jagged-shaped ground is somewhat anomalous for lacquer of this period, seemingly taking its design from textile stencils. The placement of plovers and shoreline pines suggest winter, obscuring the nature of the slanting pattern between waves or snow. A poem composed by Fujiwara Ietaka (1158-1237) is possibly the source of this composition, further suggesting that the ambiguity may have been intended:

The crying plovers-who can tell
which is which?
White waves in the snow
By the beach where winds blow from the sea

The guests who examined this incense box at a tea ceremony may also have been invited to discern what the abstract pattern represents.