Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pipe case shaped like a piece of wood, decorated with a crawling centipede

Japan

Date

c. 1870

Medium

Purple sandalwood (shitan), iron, gold

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The musozutsu (pipe case) is carved overall as a tree trunk, the boles stippled. There is a Myōchin-family-style iron collar attachment (fuchi) with a 3-d figure of a crawling centipede on the collar. The centipede has gold eyes and appears to be emerging from a hole in the ground of the metal. The collar could date anytime from the 18th or 19th century and the wood has an elegant soft patina, showing the richness of the grain. This pipe case was formerly in the collection of Elly Nordskog (died 2013), wife of the boat racer and manufacturer Bob Nordskog (1913–1992), and is published in the lavish book “They Are All Fire and Every One Doth Shine” (p. 300–1). Japan, Asia

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