Writing Box, anonymous, 1775 - 1825
wood (plant material), h 2cm × w 14.5cm × d 16.2cm More details
The decoration on lacquer writing materials usually refers to a poem or story only indirectly. The oi (a basket carried on one’s back), here set among rampant vines, refers to an episode from The Tale of Ise, in which a traveller is overcome by a feeling of sadness while walking on an overgrown path through the mountains.
