Container, Inro

Kōsai (19th c). Portable container (inrō) with dragonfly relief (the dragonfly sumbolising late summer), miniature sculpture and toggle (netsuke) in the form of an ivory and glass bat, and drawbead (ojime) of root or nut. Inrō is inlaid with lead, mother-of-pearl, malachite and tortoiseshell along with gold and black lacquer. Inrō H 9.5 cm, W 5 cm. Netsuke H 5 cm. Formerly in the collection of George von Békésy, deposited by the Nobel Foundation. The kimono having no pockets, accessories have to be carried somehow. Women could put small objects in their sleeves and sash, wheras men, mainly, would hang their various boxes, pipes and brush cases on a cord at their belt. The portable objects are called sagemono. accessories became identity-forming status objects and an important part of men´s fashion, a world in miniature with a walth of subjects. Various kinds of artistically crafted sagemono are known from the 17th century. In addition to bwxes for tobacco, cases for personal seals (inrō) are one of the best-known types. Literally translated, an inrō is a basket (rō) containing a seal (in). Only sealed signatures were legally valid, and so samurai and merchants, for example, needing seal stamps had to carry them in small cases. This was the origin of "seal baskets" (inrō), which soon came to be used priomarily for carrying medicine. These accessoiries varied in appearance according to the wearer´s taste and wealth, as well as fashion trends. When western dress became popular during the Meiji period (1868-1912), there was less need for these protabel objects, and they were divided up into their constituent parts (with toggles kept apart) and sold to westerners. (Japan, Föremål och bilder, s. 116)