Ishikawa Rōseki 石川蝋石, 3rd generation (1950–)
Kōetsu Lacquer Box with Poem
Item number: T-1533Size: H 3.1" x L 8.7" x W 8.7" (8,2 x 22 x 22 cm)
Age: 1996
With fitted wood box inscribed on top: Kazaribako: Kōetsu utsushi suminoe makie 「飾箱・光悦写住ノ江蒔絵」 »Ornamental Box: Copy of Kōrin’s Lacquer Suminoe.«
Inscription on side of fitted box: Heian Shishō Rōseki zō 「平安・漆匠蝋石造」 »Made by Kyoto Lacquer Master Rōseki«
Inscription on lacquer box:
Does my bellowed / avoid the eyes of others /
Even on dream paths / visited by night as [waves] /
Visit Suminoe [shore]? 1
Suminoe no / [kishi] ni yoru [nami] /
yoru sae ya / yume no kayoiji /
hitome yoguramu
This display box has a complex decoration and history. As for the decoration, a raging sea with wild waves in hiramakie technique is pounding over a shoreline carefully formed by fitted lead plates using the ikakeji and kakewari techniques. The characters of the poem are in silver takamakie. The poem winds its way around the box, starting on the top and going down, right to left. The third line is placed in the lower left corner, and the last two lines run around the sides of the box. There are two omissions, however, as the words for kishi »rocky shore« and nami »waves« are not included in words, but are instead placed next to places with actual depictions of the objects, the images taking the place of the words. Thus the artist creates a witty and sophisticated design where the cover speaks through lacquer, poetry, words, and images, all in one.
The history of this box is also complex. A lacquer box by Kōetsu (1558–1637), now lost, was the original of this design, hence the title of this lacquer box. Yet Rōseki did not see the original box by Kōetsu but rather a copy that Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) had made of the original. This copy is now in the Seikadō Foundation and comes with an inscription by Kōrin saying that he saw the original box in Kōetsu’s home in Takagamine.2 Moreover, the copy that Kōrin made was clearly not an exact copy as we see distinct elements of Kōrin’s pictorial style in the depiction of the waves. Furthermore, Rōseki, when making his copy of the Kōrin copy, also made transformations, changing, for one thing, a writing box with utensils to a display box. So we have a copy of a copy of an original, where both copies changed elements of the original.
Copying lacquer works of prior masters was a timehonored tradition in Japan, and there are many records of such events, partly caused by the high incidence of fire and the likelihood of masterpieces going entirely lost if not replicated. Documented examples of such events include the famous set of notes written by Kōami Nagasuki (1661–1723), when he was asked by the Shogunate to make a faithful copy of »a box with a plum branch design,« originally made by Kōami Michikiyo (1432–1500).3 Likewise, industrialists such as Iwasaki Koyota, (the fourth president of the Mitsubishi and one of the founders of the Seikadō Foundation) were known for commissioning copies of key works in their collections from artists and artisans.4
The third generation Ishikawa Rōseki (1950– ), a lacquer artist active in Kyoto today, is known for his creative recreations of major lacquer works from the Momoyama and early Edo periods.5 According to the artist, he sees the act of recreating a famous work as an act of homage to the master who originally made the work.6 Beside the obvious aesthetic appeal and high level of technical craftsmanship of his version of Kōetsu and Kōrin, the present work is important for illustrating the process of transferring (and altering) designs of older masterpieces, and the act of creating, in the process, new visions in art.7
|