SEALED KAN (OGAWA HARITSU [RITSUO]; 1663-1747), EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY), A lacquer writing box (suzuribako)

A lacquer writing box (suzuribako)
Sealed Kan (Ogawa Haritsu [Ritsuo]; 1663-1747), Edo period (18th century)
The lid decorated with high-relief lacquer appliqués simulating iron and soft-metal tsuba on a dark brown ground, the finely lacquered motifs including Mt. Fuji, hikifune (hauling a canal boat), the Noh play Takasago and a rooster on a drum, each tsuba bearing the signature of the putative sword fitting maker, the underside of the lid decorated in gold and silver takamaki-e, inlaid mother-of-pearl, bone and porcelain with an inro, netsuke and tsuba, seal on underside of the lid, fitted with a slate ink stone and copper water dropper
9 ½ x 8 ¾ x 2 in. (24.1 x 22.2 x 5.1 cm.)

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Lot Essay

Ogawa Haritsu, also known as Ritsuo, one of the great individualists in the history of lacquer, was a poet as well as a painter, potter and lacquerer. In the 1680s, he became a disciple of the haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). Haritsu turned to lacquer after 1707, the year his friends Hattori Ransetsu and Takarai Kikaku, both disciples of Basho, died. He adopted the art name Ritsuo, or "Old man in a torn bamboo hat," in 1712. The name suggests a poet or artist wandering carefree.