1-234-618 - The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images

Lacquered wood and ivory Shibayama circular box, late Edo period, Japan, early 19th century. A small circular wood and ivory box. The lid is made of paulownia wood with a gold lacquer spray of passion flower and a wasp. The body is made of ivory carved and stained to simulate a bamboo tree with inlays of wasps, beetle and bamboo leaves in various coloured stones and inlays of Shibayama type. The base is made of dark wood. This piece is an example of the intricate, ornamental inlay in a wide variety of coloured materials associated initially with the Shibayama family, which originated in the late 18th century.