In an effort to expand the realm of the types of Japanese antiques that I cover, I present to you the first of hopefully many posts on the topic of Japanese pottery and enamelware.

I don’t know much about cloisonne, so I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this video appraising the amazing piece pictured above.  This vessel represents an important time in the advancement of cloisonne technique in Japan during the Meiji period, which is why I thought it was worth sharing with you.  I will refrain from regurgitating the information that you will glean from watching the video, but I will do so in my future posts on the subject.  I promise it won’t be as gross as it sounds.

If you happen to be in Tokyo between April 3d and April 5th and have some spare time, you should check out Art Fair Tokyo 2009.  Most of the exhibits are more focused on contemporary art, but there are four booths that I think you should visit that are antique based.  I will quickly list the vendors of interest and briefly describe what you will see.

Shouun Oriental Art: Booth D11.  Artworks from the Jomon to Edo era.  This should be super cool.

Mita Arts Gallery: Booth E06.  Woodblock prints from the Edo to Meiji era.

Gallery Kono: Booth D01.  Early Imari and Kakiemon Porcelain as well as examples of Maki-e lacquer.

Tannaka: Booth D13.  Pottery from the Kamakura and Muromachi eras; Tamba-yaki, Tokoname-yaki, Shigaraki-yaki.  As well as Noh artifacts; costumes, masks, and instruments.

There might be other exhibitors showing antiques, but these were the ones I found as I went through the exhibitor list which is extensive.  Many have links to their home pages, so feel free to peruse them to see if anything else piques your interest (click here).  You’ve got 2 weeks to book your flight, so check your calender, it looks like a huge exhibit not to be missed.

So far I’ve talked about writing boxes (suzuri bako) and portable writing sets (yatate), but I have yet really begun to talk about the implements that were necessary for calligraphy.  Now I’ve always known about the inkstone (suzuri), ink stick (sumi), and the brushes (fude), and understood the general technique for making the ink into a liquid; put some water on the stone, grind the stick on said stone, and the ink would pool up in the little well at the bottom.  The one necessary thing I never thought of was how to get the water to the stone; but now I know, and so shall you, a simple device called a suiteki.

The concept is very simple, a vessel with two holes, one for airflow and one for the water.  The water hole is sized to allow just a few drops of water out at a time.  I won’t go into too much specific detail more than that at this time, we’ll save that for later posts on the subject.  I do want to describe this piece a bit.

Dated to around 1880′s, made out of bronze, and very small, 2-1/4″ long by 1-1/4″ wide by 5/8″ high.  It has a beautiful patina as well as a very cool old fashioned sake gourd design raised in the upper corner.  Click on the image to go to the original source for more info and pictures.  Off topic, I’m a big fan of sake, especially a nice junmai daiginjo.  Kampai.

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.

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.