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Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Europeans
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineWriting Box (Suzuribako) with Europeans (蒔絵南蛮人図硯箱), 1800s. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Lacquered wood with gold maki-e, silver inlay and red lacquer on black ground; 23 x 20.2 cm (9 1/16 x 7 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1969.59
