As of yet, I have neglected writing about tansu that contain a specific traditional feature, the Bo (locking bar). This has not been due to my lack of interest in this particular feature, more just waiting for a piece that contains multiple aspects that I find worthy of discussing. Well, I finally found one with this stacking clothes chest.  Traditionally, brides took their personal tansu to the new husband’s family home, and I think that’s what we are looking at here.

The bo dansu is one of the oldest styles of tansu, probably due to the fact that it required the least amount of kanagu (hardware) to secure everything. Now in my uneducated opinion, I believe the seller of this piece is right in stating that it is from Yamagata Prefecture. One telltale feature is the warabite handles and the keyaki (zelkova) drawer fronts. I think this would be from around the mid to late Meiji era, because in earlier pieces, the handles were set against single small zagane (escutcheons) rather than full toshi-zagane (backplates) which this piece has. Furthermore, I think we can pinpoint the region of manufacture to the Shonai plain due to the style of the obikanagu (sash hardware) that are on the bo. Obikanagu were more than just decoration, they also added strength to the locking bar as well as help keep the wood from warping. Cool, huh? Well I could go on forever about hardware or how maybe thats bengara stain under the laquer on the sash hardware etc… Let’s just look at the pretty pictures instead.

In case you never noticed, space has always been a premium in Japan. Over the years, starting in the Edo era, that space was created by either combining items for multi-purposes, or they became more mobile and specialized.  The zeni-bako is one example of this progression.

The merchant class was growing and they needed to be able to have a tool that combined a writing box (kakesuzuri) and a money storage chest, so that they could take in the kane (money) and also be able to take notes on the transactions, hence the zeni-bako, which combined both.  This was greatly helpful to the thriving merchant who couldn’t trouble himself with smaller transactions, or ones that might have been conducted with a lower status client.  He could send his help out on the show floor with one of these boxes to conduct business, while he sat at the back in front of his zeni-todana (more on that in a later post) with the upper echelons.

The basic design of a zeni-bako consists of a stoutly made box, usually zelkova or chestnut, and a removable half lid with a locking plate of some sort on the front face.  Also, they often had a drawer for the necessary writing accoutrement’s.

This piece has an interesting way of hiding the drawer.  I’m not sure if you can consider this to be a true kendon-buta (drop-fit door), but i think it’s cool nonetheless.  The only thing this piece is missing one tell tale design aspect, the masu, which is a coin shaped slot.  That may indicate that this piece was not used in a typical merchant shop, maybe a public bath, temple or shrine.  In any case, I think it’s a nice example of a zeni-bako.

Hisashiburi ne! It’s been a while hasn’t it. Got a job as a cabinetmaker again, I guess I just can’t keep away from wood. But, it’s been keeping me away from this site, so it’s time to rectify that.

I couldn’t help but show you this kyodai that’s up for auction, since I previously posted an earlier style here with a more complete description. As you can see, this piece has the later square western style mirror as well as the highly figured wood. These began to be used in kyodai pieces after Sakoku, Japan’s exclusionary acts, were forcibly lifted in 1853 by Commodore Perry’s gunboat diplomacy. The listing states that this is made with keyaki (elm), but I think it looks more like kuwa (mulberry). Also, listed as 19th century, but it could be as late as early 20th. Handles look like they have been replaced with more modern hardware. Cool, none the less.

Imagine that it’s the late 1800′s, your an itinerant salesman, and you see a burgeoning market in small farming villages and also in the post towns along one of the five main traveling routes (the go-kaido), like the famous Tōkaidō road, or the Nakasendō. Now imagine that you need to carry your goods with you. What are you going to use? Luckily there is an answer to this dilemma; you would strap a nice gyosho bako to your back and march out there to prosperity.

Now obviously, depending on what you are selling, these chests could be very cumbersome. So to keep weight down you would choose a light weight wood in their construction, maybe some kiri (paulownia) or some sugi (cedar) would be prudent. And you might want to keep it simple and coat it with just some wiped laquer; its inexpensive and easy to repair. You definitely would also choose to keep the iron work to a minimum, that is, unless you were a metalsmith and needed to show off your best work. In terms of design, you had an infinite number of variations. One door, two doors, hinged or maybe drop-fit, and with as many drawers as necessary. Tall and narrow or short and squat, it’s up to you. Only one question remains, what product are you going to choose to make your destiny manifest?

Pictured is an 1880 circa gyosho bako made from hinoki (cypress) and sugi (cedar). As for the hardware, handles are in the warabite (bracken hand) style and the jomae (lockplates), with double kikuza-tegakejo (floriate button) latches, are nice and utilitarian. Two aspects of this piece I find interesting are the kendan buta (drop fit) doors and the two thicker strips of wood used for adding strength to the back where the straps are attached, I hadn’t seen that before. I don’t know about you, but I think I would hate to strap one of these on my back. That being said, I still think they are great, and historically, important as well. Definitely shows how Japan went from a totally agrarian economy during feudal times, to a more industrious one as the Shogunate’s grasp of the economy began to break down.

There are alot of nice tansu up for auction right now, so I might be posting alot about the ones that I find interesting. Here is one of them, a cha dansu from the Taisho era.

What I like about cha dansu is that some of them have chigai dana (staggered shelves), which I aesthetically love. As a big fan of architecture, I really like the Tokonoma (literally meaning bed-space), a distinct display area that evolved as an aspect of Shoin style architecture during the Muromachi period. The one side of the tokonoma held a hanging scroll and maybe some ikebana (flower arrangement), while the other side consisted of some storage space with built in cabinets and also some chigai dana. Cha dansu borrowed the chigai dana as a way to display some of the tea ceremony materials during the late Edo era.

This piece is constructed with keyaki, sugi, and hinoki, with two sets of hiki-do (sliding doors) and one kendan buta (drop fit door), fairly typical of the style. Another familiar trait is the lack of lockplates. This type of furniture was used during the offering of tea, which was a normal everyday hospitality for guests. If you had a little money, you might possess a cha dansu to add a little class to this polite exchange. What a nice way to display and store all your tea utensils.