A fine gold lacquer cabinet with an asymmetric arrangement of sliding and hinged cupboard doors, small drawers and open shelves worked in gold takamakie, hirame and kirigane on a kinji ground with scenes of the Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety. Two of the doors with panels of kirins, the interior with an elephant and a karako. The sides and back decorated with cranes in flight, the top and shelves scattered with Tokugawa mon on a nashiji ground. Applied through out with shakudo and gilt mounts also decorated with Tokugawa mon.
Signed Harui with seal of Sei (Harui Seizaburo Late Edo – 1884)
Ex G. H. Hodgson Collection, sold by Messrs. Glendining & Co., London, Monday, December 10th 1917, lot 166, illustrated plate XV.
“The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety” was written by the Yuan Dynasty scholar Kuo Chu-yeh who was also called Yizi and a well-known poet. After his father passed away, he was driven in search of true stories of the finest examples of filial respect and selected twenty-four paragons of filial virtue.
The artist Harui was commissioned to make this magnificent large gold cabinet by the order of Daimyo Matsudaira who lived in a celebrate castle in Nagoya. It took Harui nearly ten months until he decided the design. He spent five years to complete the cabinet, which pleased Daimyo Matsudaira to donate it to the Chionin temple after enjoyed it at his residence for four years.
Harui Seizaburo was born in Osaka in a family engaged in lacquer works in the end of Edo period. After practicing export lacquer ware in Nagasaki, he moved to Kyoto and produced fine lacquer works of the domestic market. He founded Harui Shikki Kobo (Harui Lacquer Studio) in Osaka in 1865, employing around thirty lacquerers. He was commissioned by Marukoshigumi Co. in Kobe and engaged in export pieces.
He died of apoplexy in 1884.
Details for four sliding doors on the top right hand shelf:
23,19.8.12
山谷・庾黔婁・老莱子・董永
Sankoku (Huang T’ingchien), Yukenro (Yu Ch’enlou), Roraishi (Lu Chi) and Toei (Tung Yung)
Details on the doors:
Left 6,15
曽参・郭巨
Sosan (Tseng Ts’an) and Kakkyo (Kuo Chu)
Right 16,18,17
朱壽昌・蔡順・剡子
Shujusho (Chu Shou-ch’ang), Saijun (T’ai Shun) and Enshi (Yen Tzu)
Details on drawers
13, 7
黄香・王祥
Koko (Huang Hsiang) and Osho (Wang Hsang)
Front cover:
丁蘭・唐婦人・姜詩
Details of the gold lacquer cabinet (no. 2)
Three scenes from the twenty-four paragons of filial piety:
Teiran (Ting Lan), Tofujin (T’ang Fu-jen) and Kyoshi (Ching Shih)
Back cover:
張考張礼・陸績・孟宗
Details of the gold lacquer cabinet (no. 2)
Three scenes from the twenty-four paragons of filial piety:
Choko(Chang Hsiao) and Chorei (Chang Li), Rikuseki (Lu Chi) and Moso (Meng Tsung)
Inside cover
大舜
Taishun (T’a Shun)
二十四孝金蒔絵書棚 春井
元ホジソンコレクション
