For some reason I just love funa dansu, maybe its because my family had boats during my formative years, leaving me with an inherent penchant for all things nautical (might explain why I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific). Whatever it is, this piece just screams at me. One of the 12 typical variations of cho-baku funa dansu that arose during the Meiji era, this piece has everything you want. Ample hardware (the extra plating originally was used to help secure the sashimono (joinery) because the glue used at the time was unreliable, especially in an aquarian environment, but later was used more as a theft deterant), as well as having a Kendon-buta (drop-fit door)
hiding a Keyaki strong box with a Kiri document box inside (although Paulownia was used typically for these interior boxes, so maybe it’s mis-identified). With Kakute (square hand) style external handles and the single Hirute (leech hand) handle on the interior drawer, hidden by the drop-fit door, as well as all the keys for the exterior drawers (minus the one for the interior drawer), this piece is just amazing. And the price is equally so, listed at $16,800.00, this tansu could be in a museum, or better yet, my apartment (I wish).

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I saw this tansu on eBay and wanted to talk about it due to the fact that it depicts another regional style perfectly. Tansu production came late to Nihonmatsu (literally, two pine trees) and the area was primarily active in the mid-Meiji era. But what they lacked for in timing, they made up with uniqueness, as they were basically uninfluenced in design by their tansu producing neighbors, Yonezawa, Sendai, and Niigata.

Nihonmatsu tansu are some of the largest clothing chests made, with a typical size of over 43 inches wide and heights sometimes over 47 inches. Always a chest on chest design with the primary woods being Sugi (Japanese Cedar) for the carcass and Keyaki (Japanese Elm) for the drawer faces (this example listed the drawers as being Matsu (pine)). These chests typically had Warabite (bracken hand) type handles with intricate incised toshi-zagane (backplates), this depicted piece also has Sakura (cherry blossom) and Matsu protective plates (I don’t know the Japanese name for this type of handle protective plates, so if any of you out there do, please contact me).

Another distinctive characteristic of the Nihonmatsu tansu was the unique jomae (lockplate) with double kikuza-tegakejo (floriate button) latches as depicted here. One button was a sliding latch (karajo), and the other was a single action lock (omotejo) requiring a key, and could be used separately. This example shows a typical Nihonmatsu sliding lock cover of brass depicting the lucky Daikoku’s mallet (Daikoku is a god that is associated with wealth and agriculture) as well as some brass depictions of koi and a money bag at the center.

Tansu from this region had two types of finishes (nuri). Kijiro, which was a laborious process of multiple layers of clear lacquer (urushi) and polishings over a natural or stained-wood surface (depicted here), or Tame nuri which was an opaque lacquer which would hide the open grained wood and was equally laborious to apply.

One last unique attribute to Nihonmatsu tansu was the atypical use of the carcass wood for the interior drawer faces in the door compartment, as opposed to the usual consistent use of the same wood for all the drawer faces (hidden or not) found on all other types of tansu.

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What we have here is a Yamabushi Tengu mask used in the typically comedic Kyogen acts performed as the sort of intermissions between Noh acts. Kyogen rarely uses masks (or props, or stage sets for that matter) unless the character was an animal or a god. A Tengu is sometimes both; the literal translation is heavenly dogs and since they lived in the woods they were sometimes worshipped as Shinto mountain Kami (gods). Tengu were originally thought of as birds of prey and the human forms were depicted as having beaks, which has evolved over time into the huge protuberances we now see. Yamabushi are mountain hermits that were imbued with supernatural powers and martial arts skills. Primarily following Shugendou, a mixture of the esoteric Buddhist form of Shingon, and Shinto. So, mountain Kami and mountain warrior ascetics form a great mix, and can often be confused, which is how I first learned about Tengu, watching Kage no Gundan (look for Shadow Warriors), a ninja series from the eighties. Anyway, no matter how you came across them, folktales, theater or ninjas, Tengu are cool and so is this mask. 1880’s, silk hair, beautiful nose, museum quality, what more could you want?

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