A red-lacquer oi (monk's backpack)


Edo period (1615-1868), 17th/18th centuryOf standard overall form with tapered sides, four out-turned feet, four finials, two hinged coffered doors to the front, the main body of red-lacquered wood with the black undercoat visible in places in the Negoro manner, the metal fittings gilt metal, decorated above and below the sides and door with panels of openwork carving of floral scrolls around a horin (Buddhist wheel) backed with gold lacquer (to the front) and panels of gold-lacquered key fret (to the sides), the doors also with low-relief key-fret carving to each side 23 x 12 5/8 x 12 5/8 in (58.4 x 32.1 x 32.1cm)
|This oi (traveling monk's backpack) is likely a development of stationary forms of Negoro-lacqured furniture that were first made in the Muromachi period; for an example see Kawada Sadamu, Negoro, Tokyo, London Gallery, 2010, cat. no. 157. The elaborate decoration of this lot, with panels of openwork carving similar to those seen on some stands for Buddhist figures, suggest that it might not have been made for actual travel but was intended for use as a domestic miniature shrine