Assembled sagemono: five-case crane inro, wood netsuke and ojime, Japan, Edo period - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)

A sagemono assembled by me, from Japan. The five-case inro is black lacquer with flying cranes in gold hiramaki-e; the birds continue across the cases. With it, a carved wood netsuke of Tōbōsaku, a plain reddish-brown ojime bead, and a later cord.

The inro is unsigned, wood with urushi. Inside, the nashiji floors are worn, with gold remaining on the rims. About 9 × 4.7 cm.

The netsuke is Tōbōsaku (Dongfang Shuo). In the legend he stole a peach of immortality from Seiōbo, the Queen Mother of the West; those peaches ripen only once every three thousand years. He is carved with the peach. Wood, unsigned, about 5 × 3 × 2.5 cm.

I added the netsuke, ojime, and cord to the inro. This is not an original workshop set, but a deliberate assembling, to give these old, partly restored pieces a new life.

Condition, stated plainly: both the inro and the netsuke show wear and damage. The inro had losses in the lacquer; I filled some of them with wax putty. That is a repair, not an urushi restoration. The wax can differ in sheen from the old lacquer. The gold of the cranes is rubbed. No box.