Box with Painted Flowers and Birds in Oil Colour

A Nara-Period Painted Box at Todaiji

The Box with Painted Flowers and Birds in Oil Colour (花鳥彩絵油色箱, Kacho Saie Yushoku-bako) is an eighth-century box owned by Todaiji in Nara City, first designated in 1909 and designated a National Treasure in 1959 as a work of craft.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a single box of the Nara period, owned by Todaiji. It gives two dates: 5 April 1909 as its designation as an Important Cultural Property, and 27 June 1959 for its designation as a National Treasure.

The name breaks down as flowers and birds, painted in colour, oil colour, box. Yushoku, oil colour, is a finish in which a clear oil is laid over painted pigments to protect them and give them a gloss. The Todaiji box is a National Treasure as an eighth-century example of that finish.

The Yushoku Finish

Oil was used with colour in several ways in the Nara period. Some pieces were painted with pigments ground in oil; others were painted with pigments bound in animal glue and then coated with oil. The second approach, in which the painting is seen through the oil, is distinguished as yushoku.

The oil film protects the colour and lends it depth and sheen, allowing bright colours that are hard to achieve with lacquer alone to be shown as a glossy surface. The Box with Painted Flowers and Birds in Oil Colour has come down at Todaiji as a surviving example of that eighth-century technique.

Why It Matters, and What Is Not Known

The Agency's database says only that the Box with Painted Flowers and Birds in Oil Colour is a Nara-period work, with no dimensions, materials or description of its decoration. The name makes clear that flowers and birds are painted on it, but no official description of the species of bird, the arrangement of the design or the size of the box could be found.

The core of its value is still clear. Few examples of Nara-period yushoku survive, and this one has been kept at Todaiji, one of the great temples of that age. It lets you check eighth-century colouring and finishing on an actual object.

Todaiji also holds other Nara-period craft National Treasures, among them the gilt bronze octagonal lantern, a dyed leather panel with grapevine scrolls and the ritual deposits from beneath the Great Buddha Hall. At the Nara National Museum's 2025 special exhibition, the painted box was lent by Todaiji alongside several of them.

What to Look For

In front of the box, look first at the sheen. On a yushoku piece the oil layer over the colour catches the light, so the colours shift as the viewing angle changes.

Then follow the flowers and birds that give the box its name. Which subjects appear on which faces is best checked in the exhibition labels or catalogue when it is shown.

Seeing the Box with Painted Flowers and Birds

The Box with Painted Flowers and Birds in Oil Colour is not on permanent display. Most recently it was shown from 20 May to 15 June 2025 at the Nara National Museum's 130th-anniversary special exhibition, Chō Kokuhō: Radiance of Prayer.

Because it appears only in exhibitions, check the exhibition information of Todaiji and the Nara National Museum before planning a visit. The museum is about 15 minutes on foot from Kintetsu Nara Station; its enquiry line is 050-5542-8600.