Writing Box

This writing box, or 'suzuribako', contains a removable tray with an inkstone, a small container for water and a water-dropper. The lid is decorated with two screens and a clothes-rack with several male accessories, including an 'inrō', a tobacco pouch, a pipe and the respective case. The two leaves of one screen are decorated with an owl perched on a branch of a Japanese cypress tree. The other screen with feet shows an eagle with its wings open and tied to a perch. The very varied techniques used to decorate this piece are generically called 'makie' (sprinkled picture) and involve creating drawings by sprinkling metal or coloured powders onto a surface of fresh lacquer.