By Yamaguchi Shojosai, signed Shojosai saku 松杖斎作 with kakihan
Japan, mid-20^th century, Showa era (1926-1989)

In the form of a mountain monk's backpack (oi) raised on four feet, the three-case inro bearing a lustrous gold kinji ground, finely decorated in iro-e hiramaki-e and takamaki-e, as well as hirame gold flakes, to simulate various features of an oi. The front mimicking the backpack’s wooden panel doors worked with a sublime mokume ground (simulated wood grain), locked together in place with a clasp, against the typical twill-plaited bamboo panels, the top and bottom registers decorated with a stylized foliate sprig and diapered geometric ground, this design is continued to the sides, the verso further decorated with two braided ropes which form the carrying straps. Signed to the underside SHOJOSAI saku [made by Shojosai] with the artist’s kakihan in red lacquer. The interior compartments of nashiji with gold fundame edges. With a gold lacquer ojime.

HEIGHT 11.3 cm, WIDTH 8.3 cm, DEPTH 4.1 cm

Condition: Excellent condition with only very minor wear.
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.

With a wood tomobako inscribed to the cover, ‘Tsuta no hosomichi on-inro’ [inro with the Narrow Ivy Road] in allusion to a chapter in Ise monogatari (The Tales of Ise, tenth century), in which travelers pass through an ivy-covered mountain pass.

Yamaguchi Shojosai was born Yamaguchi Shozaburo in Niigata; disabled by polio at an early age, he used crutches throughout his life and borrowed two characters from the Japanese word for crutches, matsubazue, to form his own art name. After a time spent lacquering mass-produced butsudan (household Buddhist altars) he joined the Tobe studio and began to manufacture inro and other maki-e items of superior quality, becoming an independent artist in 1928. He made fine inro both before and after World War II.