Writing Table with Pine, Bamboo, and Plum (1400s): Art, History and Details

Writing Table with Pine, Bamboo, and Plum (1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Low writing tables like this one were developed for use by those seated on the floor. They often had matching writing boxes. The table features the classic design of pine, bamboo, and plum, known together as the Three Friends of Winter. Indicating resilience in the face of harsh conditions, pine is evergreen, bamboo bends but does not break, and plum is the first flower to bloom in early spring. The plants are a metaphor for strength of character.

Object facts

• Title: Writing Table with Pine, Bamboo, and Plum
• Date: 1400s
• Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: Lacquered wood with gold and silver sprinkled powder (maki-e) and metal fittings
• Dimensions: height: 10.2 cm (4 in.); width: 58.4 cm (23 in.); depth: 36.9 cm (14 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1958.429

A detail from the museum

The trunks of the pine and plum are visible through the silver slopes of the ground plain.

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Yoshino, Tomio 吉野, 富雄. Jidai Makie Kyushitsu Shusei . Tokyo: Saikwasha, 1934–43.
• Lee, Sherman. E. “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 10 (December 1959): 210–231.
• Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.

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.