МАЭ № 13-15

Tabako-ire pouch

Japanese

early 19th c.

leather, copper, lacquer, shammy

14.0 x 8.5

It is a traditional Japanese tobacco pouch. Such pouches were worn on an obi sash like other sagemono – on a cord supplied with ojime bead and netsuke (or a pipe-case) as a counterweight . This pouch is a work of art decorated in various techniques. The outer surface is of embossed leather with gilded nanako pattern and takamakie lacquer painting - a performance of a sarumawashi actor and a playing child, designed on a sketch of a famous artist Hanabusa Incho (1652 – 1724). There is a writing in black characters: 英一蝶図 Hanabusa Itcho zu. At the edges there is a decorative border with the stylized unryu (“dragon in the clouds”) design. The inside surface is of shammy. The pouch is filled with the momigara rise husks. The valve is fastened with a copper button covered with dark-brown patina.

Ethnography of East and South-East Asia