Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Phoenix in Paulownia (late 1500s): Art, History and Details

Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Phoenix in Paulownia (late 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The only place the mythical phoenix will perch is in the paulownia tree. Along with the dragon, the bird is a symbol of imperial power in East Asia. This box––a container for an inkstone, brushes, and ink––is both functional and lavish, its dramatic effects achieved with a pear-skin ground decoration (nashiji) and sprinkled powder decoration in high relief (takamaki-e).

Object facts

• Title: Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Phoenix in Paulownia
• Date: late 1500s
• Culture: Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: Lacquer on wood with sprinkled gold and silver powder (maki-e) and gold and silver foil application
• Dimensions: 4 x 20.5 x 23.5 cm (1 9/16 x 8 1/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2016.34

A detail from the museum

In contrast to the bright, celebratory motifs on the exterior, the interior of the box invites a more reflective mood with its autumn moonlit sky over chrysanthemums.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "New in the Galleries.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 1 (January/February 2017): Back cover.
• Vilbar, Sinéad. “Acquisition Highlights 2016: Japanese Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 18–19.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.