An unusual hinoki rectangular (Japanese cedar) wood bunko (document box) and cover


By Kano Tessai (1845-1925), dated 1914The exterior of the lid and all four sides boldly carved with 17 ancient gigaku theatre masks, rendered in high relief with details in colour pigments, the interior of the cover similarly decorated with the masks of Daikoku and Ebisu accompanied with their respective attributes; signed on the outside from right to left: Yoshinoyama Zaodo jumotsu bu gi gakumen junanashu kinoe-tora shoshun Nanto Shonami'in nansoka Yuigadokusonan Tessai ... mosu (Yuigadokusoan Tessai ... copied 17 bugaku and gigaku dance masks belonging to the Zao Hall in Yoshino Mountain in spring of the kinoe-tora year [1914] beneath the south window of Shonami'in in Nara) with a kao and seal; signed on the inside of the cover Yuigadokusonan Tessai ... mosu (Yuigadokusonan Tessai ... copied) with a kao; with a wood tomobako storage box inscribed on the outside of the lid Bunko kinoe-tora shoshun Nanto Shonami'in nansoka Yuiga Dokusoanshu Tessai mosu (Tessai, master of Yuigadokuso'an, copied in the spring of the kinoe-tora year [1914], beneath the south window in the Shonami Temple in Nara) with a kao and seal; together with an outer wood storage box. 16.5cm x 45cm x 33cm (6½in x 17¾in x 13in). (4).
|Born to a netsuke artist's family in Gifu, Kano Tessai studied painting and wood carving in Kyoto and Nagasaki, becoming a priest for a time before returning to secular life in 1868. He opened his own business in Tokyo in 1872 and participated in the second, third and fourth Naikoku Kangyo Hakurankai (National Industrial Promotion Exhibitions) in 1881, 1890 and 1895. He also assisted the Americans Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Tenshin with their surveys of classic temple art in Kyoto and Nara, where he spent his later years. His copies of gigaku and other ancient masks in the Mine Yakushido Hall of the Horyuji Temple are in the collection of the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo.