Showa period, 1950s
Black lacquer, gold & silver makie, shell inlay
9 (dia.) x 2 cm.
Signed.
A rabbit, usagi, crouches in a field of golden pampas grass plumes, suzuki. The eyes, of inlaid shell, reflect the moon, while the inky black ground and round kogo suggests the night of the full moon. The body of the rabbit is created using silver takamakie.
The rabbit in Japanese artistic symbolism is forever associated with the moon. While the West talks of the “man in the moon”, Japanese folklore sees a rabbit pounding rice with a pestle and mortar. The low-hung full moon viewed through grasses, is also an image that can be conjured up by this piece. It traditionally represents the plain of Musashi, surrounding Tokyo, which was an area celebrated in poetry and the arts for its beauty of moon-viewing, since the early Edo period through to its development in the modern era.