Hosoge Makie Sutra Box

One Box, National Treasure since 1957

Hosoge Makie Sutra Box (宝相華蒔絵経箱, Hosoge Makie Kyobako) is a Heian-period craft object owned by Enryakuji in Shiga Prefecture, made an Important Cultural Property on 7 April 1900 and designated a National Treasure on 19 February 1957. The quantity is one box.

It measures 33.0 centimetres deep, 20.3 centimetres wide and 17.0 centimetres high. The measure word is the one used for the butterfly hand box and the Zuiryuji incense container.

19 February 1957 is the day of the butterfly hand box, the Odenta tachi and the Nagamitsu naginata: a fourth property designated on that date.

The Address Field Is Empty

The record does not say where the box is.

The owner field names Enryakuji. The address field is blank.

Ownership and location have parted before. The engraved mirror is owned by one museum and recorded at the address of another; the Ninsei tea jar belongs to a religious body and sits in a museum.

In those cases both were given. Here the location is simply not recorded.

With the Nagamitsu naginata, the maker's province had been entered in the field for prefecture; with the butterfly hand box, prefecture and address did not match. Sometimes an error enters a field, and sometimes nothing does.

This article gives no address and names only the owner.

Gold and Silver Divided by Part

The description of the ornament divides the metals.

On a black lacquer ground strewn with fine flakes, roundels of scrolling hosoge flowers are burnished out: the flowers and the encircling rings in gold, the leaves and stems in silver.

Flowers and rings gold, leaves and stems silver. Within one pattern, the metal changes by part.

With the butterfly hand box, the gold of the lacquer, the white of the shell and the silver of the inlay answered to three techniques. Different technique, different colour.

Here the technique is the same lacquer throughout, and only the metal strewn into it changes. The division falls within one method.

The inside of the lid differs again: a paler strewn ground, with a single spray of scrollwork at the centre and at each of the four corners. Outside and inside are worked to different densities.

The Silks Lining the Inside Are Later

The linings are marked expressly as replacements.

Brocade with peony scrollwork on a brown ground lines the sides within, and brocade with the same pattern on a purple ground the floor: both later.

Two grounds, brown and purple, used in different places. Both are recorded as later work.

On the chrysanthemum waist sword, only one hilt ornament was a later replacement, and it belonged to the very motif the piece is named for. At the Jodoji pagoda, a railing was first set up in 1732.

Here both linings are later. What can only be seen by opening the box belongs to a later age.

The butterfly hand box is recorded as lined with figured silk bearing peonies on a blue ground, with no note of replacement. Silks of the same design, described differently.

Seeing It

The box belongs to Enryakuji. It is a temple holding, not kept on permanent display.

The form is recorded: a box with a slightly domed lid, its edges chamfered, and a tin rim set around the mouth. The butterfly hand box carries a tin rim as well.

The assessment reads: for all that the pattern is scrollwork, the brushwork is fluent and the composition fine, and the box is representative of Heian lacquer sutra boxes.

For all that the pattern is scrollwork: the sentence concedes something first. Osasahara Shrine Main Hall began the same way, granting that the building is small before turning to its merits.

Related entries include a stole box and a jewel box bearing the same flower pattern. Arrangements for viewing can change, so check before travelling.