Japanese Lacquer Boxes: Objects of Art and Tradition

Suzuribako for writing instruments, tebako for personal effects, kōgō for incense, natsume for powdered tea, ryōshibako for paper… The Japanese language possesses a particularly rich vocabulary for describing boxes, often named less for their shape than for their use.

Some are tiny and fit in the palm of one’s hand; others reach the dimensions of a small chest. Some belong to everyday life, others to the highly codified world of the tea ceremony, writing, or incense. Through the centuries, the most precious ones have also offered master lacquerers a privileged canvas upon which to display their art.

For in Japan, a box can be much more than a simple container. Its function determines its construction, proportions, and interior layout; its decoration may flow from one side to another, reveal itself only upon opening, or make reference to a season, a poem, or a classic tale. The object intended for protection thus becomes a precious object in its own right.

From useful object to precious object

The use of urushi lacquer in Japan is extremely ancient. However, the history of lacquer boxes cannot be summarized as a linear evolution in which a simple utilitarian object gradually becomes decorative.

As early as the Heian period (794 to 1185), highly sophisticated lacquered caskets were associated with religious, aristocratic, or scholarly use. An exceptional maki-e box made in the 10th century, now classified as a National Treasure in Japan, was thus designed to preserve Buddhist texts brought back from China by the monk Kūkai.

Tebako, boxes intended notably for personal effects and cosmetics, also occupy a long-standing place in this world. Some medieval examples are today considered masterpieces of Japanese lacquerware. Richly decorated sets could belong to the furniture of the elite or be offered to shrines.

Over the centuries, uses multiplied and became specialized. In the court and the residences of warriors, then within a prosperous urban society during the Edo period (1603 to 1868), writing boxes, document boxes, personal kits, and containers for tea or incense became so many grounds for expression for lacquerers.

The box thus accompanies a large part of the history of Japanese decorative arts.

Urushi lacquer: material of protection and decoration

Most Japanese lacquer boxes are built on a wooden core, sometimes reinforced with textile, upon which numerous preparations and layers of urushi lacquer are successively applied. These must dry and harden under precise humidity conditions before being polished and recoated.

This slow process produces a resistant surface, but also a material of very particular depth. A perfectly polished urushi black does not merely constitute the background of the décor: its density, its light, and its feel contribute fully to the object. On this surface, numerous decorative techniques can then be applied.

Maki-e, literally "sprinkled picture," uses metal powders, mainly gold and silver, deposited onto the still-wet lacquer. Depending on the processes used, the décor may remain almost level with the surface, appear in relief, or seem to emerge from beneath layers of polished lacquer.

Nashiji, meanwhile, creates a shimmering background thanks to fine gold particles visible under a translucent layer of lacquer. Very frequently used on the interior of precious boxes, it sometimes transforms the opening of a lid into a true visual surprise.

Raden, the technique of mother-of-pearl inlay, allows for the introduction of iridescent flashes into the composition. Metals, gold leaf, colored lacquers, and other materials can also be involved.

The very structure of a box offers the lacquerer a freedom that not all objects allow. The décor can cover the lid, descend down the sides, extend onto the body, and then change register entirely on the inside. Opening a box can thus be part of its narrative.

The box as a decorative space

This is probably one of the most fascinating features of Japanese lacquer boxes: they possess an exterior and an interior, but also a closed state and an open state; the first glance does not necessarily provide access to the entire décor.

On a suzuribako, for example, a landscape might occupy the top of the lid while a second scene appears inside. On certain works, the motifs maintain a poetic or literary relationship with one another. The décor can evoke the Tale of Genji, the Tales of Ise, an ancient poem, a famous place, or simply the passing of a season.

The box then becomes a small narrative space. Its handling gradually reveals the artwork.

This relationship between function, construction, and décor explains in part why so many lacquer masters have devoted a significant part of their work to these objects. Suzuribako, in particular, have given rise to some of the most ambitious creations of Japanese maki-e.

Suzuribako: the writing box

The suzuribako is designed to house the instruments necessary for writing and calligraphy. Its central element is the suzuri, the inkstone on which the ink stick is rubbed with a little water. It is generally accompanied by a suiteki, a small water dropper, as well as slots or compartments for brushes and other accessories.

Wooden writing boxes are attested in Japan since at least the 9th and 10th centuries. Their construction subsequently evolved and, during the Edo period, the suzuribako became one of the major media for lacquer creation.

Major workshops and lineages of lacquerers deployed extremely elaborate compositions on them. Gold and silver maki-e, nashiji, raden, metal inlays, and plays of relief allow a functional object to be transformed into a work of art in its own right.

The exterior is, moreover, only one part of the object: on the finest suzuribako, the inside of the lid, the base, and sometimes the individual elements of the kit contribute to a composition conceived as a whole.

Tebako: storing personal effects

The term tebako historically refers to a box intended for storing various personal effects, notably toilet accessories and cosmetics.

Its history is ancient. Richly decorated tebako were used in aristocratic circles, and some were made as offerings intended for shrine deities. A 13th-century tebako kept at the Tokyo National Museum, decorated with waterwheel motifs in mother-of-pearl inlay, is now classified as a National Treasure.

The function of the tebako, however, has varied according to periods and contexts. The term therefore does not describe an absolutely immutable shape. It refers rather to a family of personal boxes whose dimensions, interior organization, and degree of sophistication can vary considerably.

The most precious examples show to what extent an intimate object could become a ground for expression for the lacquer arts.

Ryōshibako and fubako: papers, documents, and correspondence

The importance placed on writing naturally produced its own containers.

The ryōshibako is intended to store paper and documents. Generally deeper and larger than a suzuribako, it can form a coordinated set with it. Particularly refined examples combine both boxes in the same decorative program.

The fubako is linked to correspondence and documents. Its traditionally elongated silhouette responds directly to what it must contain.

Here again, function in no way prevents sophistication. Lacquer document boxes can feature extremely elaborate maki-e décor, inspired by landscapes, seasonal motifs, or classical literature.

The content and its container then belong to the same cultivated world: that of paper, writing, and poetry.

Kōgō: the small incense box

On an entirely different scale, the kōgō is a small box intended to hold incense. It occupies a special place among the utensils of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. Presented to guests and intended to be observed, it can be made of lacquer but also of ceramic and other materials.

Its history also reveals the Japanese capacity to give new uses to older objects. Some small medieval lacquer caskets that originally belonged to toiletry kits were thus adopted as incense containers when the culture of tea developed.

The very small surface of the kōgō has never limited the invention of artisans. Geometric shapes, flowers, fruits, animals, familiar objects: kōgō constitute an extraordinarily varied universe, where preciousness can sit alongside humor and whimsy.

Natsume: the tea box turned collector's item

The natsume also belongs to the world of chanoyu. This small box with a nesting lid serves to present matcha, the green tea reduced to powder used during the tea ceremony. Its name comes from its shape, traditionally likened to the fruit of the jujube tree (natsume in Japanese), although many variations in proportions and profiles exist.

The simplest natsume may highlight the beauty of plain lacquer. Others become true miniature works of art: gold or silver maki-e, seasonal motifs, poetic references, landscapes, plants, and animals unfold on a curved surface that requires the lacquerer to have perfect mastery of composition.

Unlike a suzuribako or a tebako, the natsume is held almost entirely in the hand. This physical proximity contributes much to its appeal: the object is discovered as much through touch and handling as it is by sight.

Jūbako: the box that builds in height

The jūbako belongs to the realm of the table. It consists of several stackable compartments and is used notably to present and transport food.

Jūbako are closely associated with festive meals and in particular with the osechi ryōri served for the New Year. But behind an immediately functional shape lies, once again, an important ground for decorative expression.

Some old black lacquer sets are enriched with maki-e, mother-of-pearl, or precious metals. Stacking the different levels allows the décor to develop vertically and transforms, once the set is closed, several independent boxes into a single object.

A much broader box vocabulary

The few major families mentioned above are far from exhausting the extraordinary variety of Japanese boxes and containers. Their name often reveals an extremely precise use, linked to writing, clothing, travel, food, tobacco, personal objects, or leisure.

Here are a few examples, some of which have become rare today:

Bentō: a meal prepared and arranged in a box to be taken away and consumed later. Historically linked to travel, work, excursions, or even hanami, the bentō fully belongs to the Japanese culture of the portable meal.

Bunkobako: a box intended for books, papers, and documents. Lacquer models can feature particularly elaborate décor.

Hankobako: a box intended for storing hanko, the personal seals used in Japan to sign and authenticate documents.

Hasamibako: a portable chest intended notably for clothing and personal effects, once transported using a pole during travel.

Himitsubako: a box with a secret mechanism, particularly associated with the Hakone region. It can only be opened by sliding its various parts in a precise order.

Hokkaibako: a large traditional container notably associated with the shell sets used for kai awase, an aristocratic game consisting of matching the two corresponding halves of a shell.

Inrō: a small portable lacquer container composed of several stacked and nested compartments, intended notably for medicines and seals. It was worn suspended from the obi.

Karabitsu: a chest on legs of ancient origin intended for storing clothing, precious objects, or treasures. The Shōsō-in collections in Nara hold several historical examples.

Kashiki: a vessel intended for presenting Japanese pastries and sweets. It can take very diverse shapes and be made of wood or lacquer.

Kimono bako: a storage box intended for kimonos and other clothing, traditionally made of paulownia wood, notably to protect them.

Kiseru bako: a case intended to protect the kiseru, the long Japanese pipe. It was frequently associated with a tobacco container.

Ningyō bako: a box intended for storing and protecting Japanese dolls and their accessories.

Senryōbako: a sturdy chest intended for the transport or storage of currency. Its name evokes a sum of one thousand ryō, an ancient Japanese monetary unit.

Tabako ire: a container intended for tobacco, often carried with a kiseru and its case. Examples from the Edo period could become true ornamental accessories.

Tanzakubako: a box intended for tanzaku, long strips of paper on which poems were notably written.

This list could be extended further. The Japanese vocabulary distinguishes a multitude of containers adapted to what they must protect, transport, or present. Not all are made of lacquer, and not all are even "boxes" in the strict sense we understand in English. That is precisely what makes them interesting: behind an apparent profusion of names emerges a material culture in which the container is often conceived with as much precision as that which it contains.

The box and the Japanese space

To understand the place occupied by boxes in Japanese material culture, one must also look at the space in which they were used.

The image of an almost empty Japanese interior, reduced to tatami mats, paper partitions, and a few carefully chosen objects, is in part an idealized construct, but it rests on a reality. In traditional housing, rooms were relatively sparsely furnished and, above all, rarely assigned to a single use. The same room could serve for receiving guests, taking meals, or sleeping. In the evening, futons were unrolled; in the morning, they were stored in the oshiire. Tables, cushions, and objects necessary for an activity could similarly appear and then disappear.

This does not mean that Japanese houses contained few things; quite the contrary. Clothing, papers, writing instruments, toiletry accessories, objects linked to tea or incense formed an entire material world. But a large part of these objects was stored, grouped, and protected in furniture, chests, and above all a multitude of specialized containers.

The box thus participates in a very particular organization of space. It allows one to gather the objects necessary for a use, to protect them when they are not in service, and to make them reappear at the desired moment. The suzuribako contains the instruments of writing; the tebako gathers personal effects; the kōgō preserves incense; the natsume contains the tea. Everything has its container, and every container accompanies a gesture.

In an interior where relatively few objects remain permanently in view, their appearance takes on a different level of importance. A lacquer box placed before you is not lost among an accumulation of decorative items. Its form, its deep black, its maki-e decoration, or the shimmer of its nashiji can fully occupy the space.

This way of living has evolved profoundly with the Westernization of Japanese interiors and the transformations of contemporary housing. Yet, the culture of the container has not disappeared. From the most precious items to the most everyday storage solutions, the Japanese taste for boxes, compartments, and objects precisely adapted to what they must contain remains remarkably present.

Objects made to be handled

The preciousness of large Japanese lacquer boxes should not make us forget their primary function. Suzuribako, tebako, kōgō, natsume, or jūbako were designed to hold something, to be opened, closed, moved, or presented; this is perhaps what makes them feel so present even today.

Even when an antique box has become a collector's item, its form continues to tell the story of the use for which it was intended. An inkstone explains the organization of a suzuribako; a few grams of matcha determine the proportions of a natsume; a sheet of paper or a letter gives the ryōshibako and the fubako their reason for being.

And upon these forms dictated by use, Japanese artisans have developed an art of extraordinary sophistication over the centuries.

The box protects an object. But in the finest urushi lacquer pieces, the container sometimes ends up becoming even more precious than what it was intended to preserve.

Lacquer boxes at Atelier Ikiwa

At Atelier Ikiwa, I select antique or contemporary Japanese lacquer boxes for the quality of their craftsmanship, the beauty of their decoration, and the stories they tell. Natsume, kōgō, suzuribako, or precious boxes testify, each in their own way, to this particular relationship between use, material, and savoir-faire.

Each piece is chosen individually, with the same attention paid to the quality of the lacquer, the work of the decoration, the techniques employed, the balance of the form, and, for antique pieces, their state of preservation. Beyond their original function, these boxes are also objects to contemplate and use, capable of naturally finding their place in a contemporary interior.

Discover the selection of Japanese lacquer boxes and objects at Atelier Ikiwa: natsume; precious boxes

© Atelier Ikiwa – Laurence Corteggiani. Photographs and texts protected. All reproduction prohibited without authorization.