Autumn held still — maple and ginkgo suspended in lacquer on bare wood, as if the season refused to pass.
🔹 [ Cultural & Artistic Insight ]
This kogo (incense container) is a collaboration between two lineages. Kobayashi Shosai turned the wood body, leaving the natural grain visible — a deliberate restraint that frames the lacquer work without competing with it. The maki-e decoration is by Kinjo Ikkokusai, a hereditary art name from Hiroshima whose lineage traces to the Edo period. The Kinjo house is one of the most recognized maki-e families in western Japan, carrying forward techniques refined across generations.
The theme is kirizuki — misty moon — an autumn kigo that evokes the transitional moment when moonlight diffuses through cooling air. Rather than depicting the moon directly, the artist translates the season through its foliage: scattered maple leaves turning color, ginkgo fans caught mid-drift, and slender grasses bending beneath unseen weight. This is landscape as emotional register.
The technique employed is iro-maki-e (colored maki-e), where gold and colored lacquer powders are layered to achieve depth and chromatic variation within a single plane. On the pale wood ground, each element appears to float — the leaves neither falling nor resting, but simply present.
🔹 [ Deep-Dive Commentary ]
The wood body is turned with quiet precision. The lid fits flush, the proportions compact — 6.8 cm across, barely 2 cm tall. This is a kogo made for the intimate scale of chanoyu, where the incense container sits beside the hearth and is examined at close range. Every detail must hold.
The maki-e composition is asymmetric and unhurried. Maple leaves in warm red-gold cluster toward one side, while ginkgo fans in paler tones drift across the opposite face. Fine grasses anchor the lower register. The colored lacquer sits in relief against the wood grain, creating a surface that shifts between craft and painting. There is no background fill, no urushi ground — the wood itself becomes sky.
The piece arrives with a kimekobako (authentication box), confirming the attribution to both makers. The condition is strong — the lacquer retains its color and the wood surface shows no significant wear. This is a kogo that has been stored carefully, likely within the box for most of its life.
- **Dimensions:** H 2.0 cm × W 6.8 cm - **Weight:** 27 g - **Material:** Natural wood body with iro-maki-e lacquer decoration - **Period:** Showa–Heisei - **Condition:** Good — lacquer intact, wood surface clean, no significant wear
🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ] • Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days • Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking) • Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials
