{"product_id":"japanese-tamenuri-lacquer-natsume-tea-caddy-with-kyoraku-maki-e-landscape-signed-nakamura-soetsu-kyoto-urushi-art-with-tomobako","title":"Japanese Tamenuri Lacquer Natsume Tea Caddy with Kyoraku Maki-e Landscape, Signed Nakamura Soetsu, Kyoto Urushi Art with Tomobako","description":"Experience Authentic Japan Art with this Japanese Tamenuri Lacquer Natsume. This Signed Nakamura Soetsu Tea Caddy serves as a Kyoraku Maki-e Landscape Vessel and Kyoto Urushi Lacquer Art piece, featuring Gold Maki-e Bridge Pine Motif and Tomobako Signed Wooden Box—a must-have for any Japanese Tea Ceremony Collector.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Nakamura Sōetsu (中村宗悦), Kyoto urushi \u0026amp; maki-e lineage\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Tamenuri (translucent amber lacquer over black ground) with Kyōraku maki-e on the inner lid; fundame ridges on the shoulder\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Late Shōwa to early Heisei period (circa 1980s–2000s); never used, kept in tomobako\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kyoto, Japan (京都)\u003cbr\u003e• Form: Ō-natsume (大棗) — tall matcha tea caddy form\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions (approx.): H 8.0 cm × Ø 7.5 cm (please verify before use)\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Tomobako (共箱) — paulownia wood with artist's calligraphic inscription and seal, bound with purple sanada-himo cord\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent. Lacquer surface retains full mirror-deep gloss; maki-e crisp and uncompromised; no chips, no flaking, no repairs observed. Faint handling traces consistent with archival storage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eHistorical Context — The natsume, named for its resemblance to the jujube fruit, has served chanoyu since the Muromachi period as the principal vessel for usucha (thin matcha). The ō-natsume, taller and more architectural than its standard sibling, carries a particular gravitas in formal procedures and is favored by host who wish the caddy itself to become a quiet focal point of the gathering.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTechnique \u0026amp; Aesthetic — Tamenuri is achieved by laying multiple coats of transparent shū-urushi over a black or vermilion ground; with time the lacquer clarifies, allowing the under-layer to surface like a lit ember beneath dark water. Across the shoulder, a soft range of mountains is rendered in fundame — a matte gold field laid grain-by-grain — and the lid's interior opens onto a full Kyōraku scene: pines, a slatted bridge, drifting mist, and the faintest blue-green flicker of aogai shell, all in graded hiramaki-e and takamaki-e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhilosophical Reflection — The landscape is hidden inside the lid. The host alone sees it when the tea is whisked, and the guest is offered only its memory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eKyōraku maki-e (京洛蒔絵) refers to a Kyoto-school decorative idiom in which the famed scenery of the old capital — Arashiyama, the Togetsu bridge, the pine-screened banks of the Hozu and Kamo rivers — is condensed onto the curved interior of a tea utensil. The decoration is not chosen for spectacle but for cultural literacy: a guest familiar with the seasonal poetry of Kyoto will read the scene without explanation, and the host's choice becomes a quiet act of citation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe technical achievement of this caddy lies in its restraint. The outer body is left almost entirely undecorated, allowing the depth of the tame lacquer to carry the form alone. Only at the shoulder does a low band of mountains rise, drawn in soft fundame so that it reads less as ornament and more as horizon. The eye is then asked, on opening, to descend into the landscape held within — a deliberate inversion of scale that is one of the small intellectual pleasures of maki-e at this level.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNakamura Sōetsu (中村宗悦) works within the Kyoto urushi tradition, producing tea utensils for practicing tea-people rather than for display. Pieces bearing his signature and tomobako tend to circulate quietly within tea circles in Kansai and are seldom released to general market; their value is recognized first through use and through the steady deepening of the lacquer over decades of handling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the collector, an ō-natsume of this calibre occupies the intersection of practical chadōgu and small-scale lacquer painting. It may be brought into a tea gathering without hesitation, yet it also withstands study as an object — turned slowly under lamp-light, the maki-e reveals successive layers of gold density that simply cannot be photographed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts continued relevance is plain. The forms and techniques here were settled centuries ago and remain unsurpassed for their purpose; the only variable is the quiet authorship of the hand that made this particular example.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 基本情報 ]\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：中村宗悦（京塗・蒔絵師）\u003cbr\u003e• 技法：溜塗（透き漆を黒下地に重ね塗り）、内蓋に京洛蒔絵、肩部に金粉地の山並\u003cbr\u003e• 時代：昭和後期〜平成初期頃（1980年代〜2000年代）。共箱保管の未使用品\u003cbr\u003e• 産地：京都\u003cbr\u003e• 形状：大棗（薄茶器）\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法（目安）：高さ約8.0cm × 径約7.5cm（実用前に再計測推奨）\u003cbr\u003e• 箱：桐製共箱、作家自筆書付と落款、紫真田紐\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：良好。漆肌の艶は深く保たれ、蒔絵に欠けや剥離なし。共箱内で大切に保管されてきた個体。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 文化的・美術的考察 ]\u003cbr\u003e歴史的背景 — 棗は室町期より薄茶器の中心として用いられ、なかでも大棗はその端正な高さゆえ格の高い席で好まれてきた。茶器そのものが静かな焦点となることを許す器形である。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e技法と美 — 溜塗は黒漆地の上に透き漆を重ね、時とともに下地の色が灯火のように浮かび上がる仕上げ。肩には金粉地（フンダメ）による山並、内蓋には松・橋・霞、そして青貝の微かな煌めきを伴う京洛の景色が平蒔絵と高蒔絵で描き分けられている。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e哲学的省察 — 景色は蓋の内側に隠されている。主だけがそれを見、客にはその余韻だけが手渡される。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 深掘り解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e京洛蒔絵とは、嵐山・渡月橋・保津川沿いの松林・賀茂の流れといった京の名景を、茶道具の内側という限られた曲面に凝縮する京焼系の意匠語彙である。それは華やかさのためではなく、教養への参照として選ばれる。京の四季の詩歌に親しむ客であれば、説明を要さずにその景を読み、亭主の選定は静かな引用行為となる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの大棗の技術的妙は、その抑制にある。外側はほぼ無地に近く、溜の深さだけで形を支える。肩にわずかに山並を低く敷き、それを蒔絵というよりも地平として読ませる。そして蓋を開くと内側の景に視線が下りていく――この内外の反転こそ、上質な蒔絵が与える小さな知的悦びである。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e中村宗悦は京塗の系譜に属し、観賞用ではなく茶人のための実用茶道具を主に制作してきた作家である。共箱を伴う作は関西の茶席界隈で静かに巡り、市中に出ることは稀。その価値はまず使用の場で、そして数十年の手沢によって深まる漆肌のなかで認識されてゆく。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e蒐集家にとって、この水準の大棗は実用茶道具と小品蒔絵絵画の交差点に位置する。茶席に持ち出して躊躇うところがなく、机上に置き灯下で回せば、写真には決して写らない金粉の層の重なりが現れる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e器形も技法も数世紀前に定まり、その目的において今なお代替されない。残る変数は、ただこの一椀を仕上げた手の静かな署名のみである。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ SHIPPING \u0026amp; PACKAGING ]\u003cbr\u003e• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days\u003cbr\u003e• Carrier: Japan Post EMS \/ UPS (with tracking)\u003cbr\u003e• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61869966983538,"sku":"260522_a_2873","price":3638.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m19350898116_1.jpg?v=1779418167","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/japanese-tamenuri-lacquer-natsume-tea-caddy-with-kyoraku-maki-e-landscape-signed-nakamura-soetsu-kyoto-urushi-art-with-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}