KAJIKAWA BUNRYUSAI: A MAGNIFICENT LACQUER FOUR-CASE INRO DEPICTING YOSHITSUNE'S JUMP AT DAN-NO-URA

KAJIKAWA BUNRYUSAI: A MAGNIFICENT LACQUER FOUR-CASE INRO DEPICTING YOSHITSUNE'S JUMP ACROSS EIGHT BOATS AT DAN-NO-URA

By Kajikawa Bunryusai II or III, signed Kajikawa Bunryusai 梶川丈龍斎 saku 作
Japan, Edo (Tokyo), 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Of square form and oval section, the four-case inro bearing a lustrous roiro ground, masterfully worked in iro-e takamaki-e and hiramaki-e, to depict Yoshitsune executing his legendary "eight boat leap" at Dan-no-ura, during the Battle of Yashima (1185). Yoshitsune is depicted mid-flight, as he glides past a warship with a prow in the form of a geki (a fabulous bird of Chinese origin), arrows flying about. The loyal warrior monk Benkei lifts his hand clasped around a fan towards Yoshitsune from a Minamoto boat, as a samurai plunges headfirst into the water. Signed to the underside KAJIKAWA BUNRYUSAI saku [made by Kajikawa Bunryusai]. The interior compartments of nashiji with gold fundame rims.

With a bone ojime carved with a tanuki dueling a rabbit, referencing a scene from the Kachi-kachi Yama folktale when a tanuki challenged a rabbit to a life and death contest to prove who was the better creature.

HEIGHT 9.2 cm, LENGTH 9.2 cm

Condition: Good condition with minor expected wear, few light scratches, some light nibbling to the edges of the cases. Two small chips with associated touchups to the roiro ground of the top case.
Provenance: Ex-collection Alan and Simone Hartman. Alan Hartman was born on 9 January 1930, the son of Hazel and Urban Hartman. Urban Hartman opened a shop dealing in Oriental art on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 1927 and Hartman Rare Art was incorporated in 1945. Alan grew up surrounded by works of art; he purchased his first jade when he was a child – he was 12 – and from that moment until his passing, he continued to acquire antiques and works of art. For a while Alan worked with his brother, Roland, and when they split, he made the decision to run the business on his own. Hence the name Rare Art was to endure, and Alan owned substantial galleries on Madison Avenue in New York and at one point stores in Dallas and Palm Beach. Anyone who visited his New York stores will remember that it was easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of the stock – including Chinese from Neolithic to the 20th century, Japanese, silver, and jades and hardstones from all over the world. Privately, however, Alan and his second wife, the love of his life, Simone, purchased special pieces for their homes – fine Japanese works of art and objets de vertu, Impressionist paintings, magnificent jades, the best Tang and Ming ceramics, archaic Chinese bronzes, gold boxes, and an important collection of Huguenot silver. Parts of his collection have been donated to the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Brooklyn Museum, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Kajikawa Bunryusai I was the third master of the Kajikawa family and worked for the shogunate in the late 17th century. The name is frequently found on inro and other objects, but it is not recorded how many of the Kajikawa family used it. The presumption is that inro so signed are normally the work of one or more artists active from the mid-18th to late 19th century as Bunryusai II and III.