Case (Inrō) with Design of People Catching Fireflies
19th century
Medium
Roiro (waxen) lacquer with decoration in togidashi sprinkled and polished lacquer and nashiji (pear-skin) lacquer; Interior: nashiji and fundame; Ojime: metal (zogan) inlay with spider; Netsuke: carved wood with stone inlay of snail on broken roof tile
Dimensions
3 x 1 7/8 x 1 1/8 in. (7.6 x 4.8 x 2.8 cm)
Classification
Inrō
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936
Accession Number
36.100.213
Tags
About the Artist
Koma Kōryū · ?–1796
**Koma Kōryū** (d. 1796), born Kimura Shichiemon, was a distinguished Japanese lacquer artist of the Edo period, renowned for his mastery of maki-e inrō. Little is known of his early life, which remains sparsely documented, but he rose to prominence through his close ties to the illustrious Koma family, a dynasty of lacquerers serving the Tokugawa shogunate since the 17th century. Adopted into the...