Shogunal Wedding Gift

This toilette set, called a chodo, includes a kyodai (large mirror stand with drawers), a wash basin and ewer, combs, boxes, and other components. The aoi crest, a circle enclosing a trifoliate pattern, appears on each piece, indicating that this set belonged to a member of the Tokugawa ruling clan.

Sets like these were commissioned as bridal trousseaux for members of daimyo and other senior samurai families marrying into the Tokugawa clan. The Tokugawa shogunate served as the central military government in Japan from 1603 to 1876. The title of shogun—an abbreviation of the title Sei-i-tai-shogun (Barbarian-Subduing Generalissimo)—was conferred on officers as early as the 8th century. After the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, shoguns were selected only from the Tokugawa clan and given absolute political authority.