RYUSAI: A SUPERB SINGLE-CASE LACQUER INRO DEPICTING THE SANSUKUMI

RYUSAI: A SUPERB SINGLE-CASE LACQUER INRO DEPICTING THE SANSUKUMI
By Ryusai, signed Ryusai 柳哉
Japan, 19
th
century, Edo period (1615-1868)
The large single-case inro bearing a beautiful gyobu-nashiji ground, decorated in iro-e takamaki-e with an imposing snake coiling around the composition and around the large, warty toad to the other side, its skin masterfully emulated with light sprinkles of gold and silver. Signed underneath in gold lacquer RYUSAI. The interior of red lacquer. With a roiro-lacquered ojime.
HEIGHT 9 cm, LENGTH 6.8 cm
Condition. Very good condition with only very minor, typical wear to lacquer.
The toad is depicted with its mouth full, presumably having half-swallowed a snail, thus completing the trinity of the sansukumi; the frog, snake, and snail. Sansukumi translates to 'the three who are afraid of one another'. The three animals are in a state of mutually assured destruction: the snake will consume the frog, however the frog has already eaten a poisonous snail, so the snake must perish as well. This motif is connected to sansukumi-ken, a category of Japanese hand games played by using three hand gestures. The oldest sansukumi-ken game is mushi-ken, a game originally from China. In mushi-ken, the 'frog' represented by the thumb wins against the 'slug' represented by the pinkie finger, which, in turn defeats the 'snake' represented by the index finger, which wins against the 'frog'. Although this game was imported from China, the Japanese version differs in the animals represented. In adopting the game, the original Chinese characters for centipede or millipede were apparently confused with the characters for the 'slug'. The centipede was chosen because of the Chinese belief that the centipede was capable of killing a snake by climbing and entering its head. One of the few surviving sansukumi-ken games is jan-ken, which was brought to the West in the 20th century as rock paper scissors.
Literature comparison:
For an inro with the same design by Kansai (presumably Koma Kansai), see Kurstin, Joe (1999) Miniature Masterpieces: The Storytelling Art of Japanese Inro, pp. 72-73.
Auction comparison:
Compare a related inro bearing a similar ground and with a similar design of snakes, at Christie's, Arts of Japan, 5 December 2017, London, lot 38 (
sold for GBP 16,250
).
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