Dog And Flowers

This late Edo period maki-e inro is signed "Seisho". It depicts on one side flowering peonies and on the other side a pair of dogs. Different lacquer techniques are represented in this 4-case inro. The background is kimpun, gold dusted, and the two dogs and peonies are in takamakie technique. Flower petals and buds are coloured red and bellies of the dogs are of silver brush.

The inro comes with a wooden, blue lacquered ojime and a wooden netsuke in the shape of a mokugyo, a buddhist monk's wodden bell, or percussion instrument. Both, ojime and netsuke are Edo period, but the the composition with the inro seems rather coincidental. However, I have decided to leave them, as this was the way I acquired the inro.

I found this inro in Karuizawa, the Japanese resort town, where many famous Japanaese family owned a summer house to retreate from the suffocating Tokyo to this mountain area. Hence, I assume this inro was either sold off for money or was "cleaned out", when one of these many summer retreats passed ownership.

The signature of "Seisho" does not use the same characters as the Seisho signatures listed by Lazarnick. To-date, I could not identify whether this is the same Seisho using different characters for "sho" or a different inro maker.