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A black lacquer four-case inro By the Inagawa Family, 19th century
Sold for £1,625 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistA black lacquer four-case inro
Bearing a rich roiro ground, lacquered with a continuous design of two warriors of the Heike army, in full armour, approaching a large tree, on the other side of which a groom restrains a bucking horse, while two doves fly overhead, in gold, silver and slight-coloured takamakie and e-nashiji with highlights of kirikane, the interior of nashiji, signed Inagawa with red pot seal.
8.5cm (3 3/8in) high.
Footnotes
The subject illustrates an episode from the Taira-Minamoto wars, when Minamoto no Yoritomo hid from his Taira pursuers in the hollow of a large tree. He managed to escape when one of the enemy, Kajiwara Kagetoki, pointed out two flying doves, which diverted their attention.
Another example of an inro with the same subject by a member of the Inagawa family was illustrated by A. J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980, no.46, fig.57; and by Eskenazi Ltd., The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer, London, 1990, p.100, no.48.























