{"product_id":"tokuyama-yutetsu-aogai-shippo-kogo-mother-of-pearl-incense-container","title":"Tokuyama Yutetsu Aogai Shippo Kogo Mother-of-Pearl Incense Container","description":"Tokuyama Yutetsu Aogai Shippo Kogo — Round black lacquer incense container featuring iridescent mother-of-pearl inlay in shippo (seven-treasures) geometric pattern. Authentic Japanese lacquerware with signed tomobako, crafted with aogai abalone shell technique. A stunning example of traditional craftsmanship for tea ceremony collectors.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e🔹 BASIC DETAILS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Tokuyama Yutetsu (徳山祐哲)\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Aogai (blue\/green mother-of-pearl inlay) on black lacquer\u003cbr\u003e• Pattern: Shippo-tsunagi (seven-treasures interlocking circles)\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Late 20th - early 21st century\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: H 1.5 cm × W 7.0 cm (H 0.6\" × W 2.8\")\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Signed tomobako (wooden authentication box)\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent — shell inlay intact, lacquer surface in fine condition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e🔹 CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis incense container demonstrates the technical mastery of aogai — the art of embedding razor-thin abalone shell fragments into lacquer surfaces. The shippo-tsunagi pattern (interlocking circles forming flower petals) carries Buddhist symbolism of infinite connection and harmony, making it particularly appropriate for tea ceremony use.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe flat, round form follows classical kogo proportions, designed to rest elegantly beside the kama (tea kettle) during formal tea gatherings. Each shell fragment catches light differently, creating a subtle interplay between the matte black lacquer ground and the luminous inlay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTokuyama Yutetsu works within the centuries-old tradition of Japanese lacquerware, where patience and precision define authorship. The signed tomobako confirms both provenance and the artist's endorsement of the piece.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*Light shifts across shell — each glance reveals a different geometry.*\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e🔹 DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe shippo pattern appears throughout Japanese decorative arts, from temple textiles to ceramics. Here, rendered in aogai, it takes on dimensional depth — the shell's natural iridescence shifting from blue to green to silver depending on viewing angle and light source. This optical quality distinguishes aogai work from painted or carved decoration.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe flat profile serves both aesthetic and practical purposes. During tea ceremony, the kogo must be small enough not to dominate the visual field yet present enough to mark the moment of incense appreciation. This piece strikes that balance precisely.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe process of creating aogai inlay requires extraordinary patience. Abalone shell is sliced paper-thin, cut into precise shapes, and set into lacquer one piece at a time. Each fragment must align perfectly with its neighbors to create the continuous geometric pattern. A single misplacement disrupts the entire visual rhythm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tomobako inscription provides authentication and context — the artist's signature acts as both guarantee and invitation to understand the work through its lineage rather than novelty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e🔹 日本語解説\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e徳山祐哲作の青貝七宝香合です。黒漆地に青貝(螺鈿)による七宝繋ぎ文様が施されています。七宝繋ぎは仏教的な「無限の調和」を象徴し、茶道具として格式高い意匠です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• 作家: 徳山祐哲\u003cbr\u003e• 技法: 黒漆地に青貝(螺鈿)象嵌\u003cbr\u003e• 文様: 七宝繋ぎ\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法: 高さ1.5cm × 幅7.0cm\u003cbr\u003e• 共箱付き\u003cbr\u003e• 状態: 優良 — 貝片・漆面ともに良好\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e青貝は薄く削った鮑の貝殻を漆に埋め込む技法で、角度や光によって青・緑・銀と色が変化します。この光学的効果が塗りや彫りとは異なる立体感を生み出します。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e扁平な円形は香合の古典的形状で、茶会の際に釜の傍らに置かれることを想定しています。七宝繋ぎの連続文様は、仏教の「七宝」（金・銀・瑠璃・玻璃・硨磲・赤珠・瑪瑙）に由来し、無限の吉祥を表します。共箱付きで作家の署名により真正性が保証されています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\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":61580215124338,"sku":"241225-a-0933","price":857.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m17900067216_1.jpg?v=1770687748","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/tokuyama-yutetsu-aogai-shippo-kogo-mother-of-pearl-incense-container","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}