Cleveland Museum of Art
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Europeans
- Date
- 1800s
- Medium
- lacquered wood with gold maki-e, silver inlay and red lacquer on black ground
- Culture
- Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The two people on the left of this box lid's design are Portuguese traders, identifiable by their balloon-shaped pants. Facing them is a Jesuit priest in a long robe. Portuguese ships arrived in Japan in the 1540s. Imagery first made to document the appearance of the foreigners survived as decoration on later objects like this one. The Japanese term nanban 南蛮 is used to describe designs like the one on this box.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Europeans (lid)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Europeans
Cleveland Museum of Art
Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"
Cleveland Museum of Art
Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"
Cleveland Museum of Art
Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"
Cleveland Museum of Art
Small Box
Art Institute of Chicago
Writing box with Nanban figures
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Writing box (suzuribako)
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Design of Pine, Camellia, and Bamboo (lid)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Southern Barbarians
Art Institute of Chicago
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Phoenix in Paulownia (lid)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Design of Pine, Camellia, and Bamboo (base)
Cleveland Museum of Art