Japanese lacquer and coral inro with a branch of hozuki

An image of Netsuke. Inro/manju/ojime. Unknown maker, Japan. A four case inro with five divisions, of standard shape. The roiro (black lacquer polished to a deep gloss) ground is decorated in shades of gold & silver hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) & takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) with a branch of hozuki with leaves and two fruits-the fruits are of inlaid coral. The reverse is decorated with a cricket, its gold body inlaid with aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell), beneath an opened hozuki fruit. The compartments and risers are nashiji (shimmering spangles) and the rims and shoulders fundame (matt gold). The inro has been signed 'Koma Kwansai', but was probably produced by a pupil. Lacquer and coral inro, height 8.5 cm, width 5.9 cm, 1800-1850. Edo Period (1615-1868).

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Netsuke. Inro/manju/ojime. Unknown maker, Japan. A four case inro with five divisions, of standard shape. The roiro (black lacquer polished to a deep gloss) ground is decorated in shades of gold & silver hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) & takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) with a branch of hozuki with leaves and two fruits-the fruits are of inlaid coral. The reverse is decorated with a cricket, its gold body inlaid with aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell), beneath an opened hozuki fruit. The compartments and risers are nashiji (shimmering spangles) and the rims and shoulders fundame (matt gold). The inro has been signed 'Koma Kwansai', but was probably produced by a pupil. Lacquer and coral inro, height 8.5 cm, width 5.9 cm, 1800-1850. Edo Period (1615-1868).

Image data

Accession Number: MAR.O.13 & A & B-1912
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 100
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Photographer name: Image Library; Fitzwilliam Museum
Image height: 1668 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
Filesize: 96.43kB
Exposure time: 1/30
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1
Captured: 2000:01:09 19:18:53

Key words

19th Century _WF_AdOK _WF_KWD _WF_OPAC _WF_OPAC_pending aogai bead compartments cricket Edo Period Fitz_AA fruits fundame gold grasshopper hiramakie hozuki fruit inlaid inlay inro insects Japanese lacquer lacquered lacquering leaves manju matt gold nashiji netsuke Ojime polished roiro shell takamakie

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025)
            "Japanese lacquer and coral inro with a branch of hozuki"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-3045641934 Accessed: 2025-12-24 13:56:41

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-3045641934
            |title=Japanese lacquer and coral inro with a branch of hozuki
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-24 13:56:41|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-3045641934

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/651/991/large_MAR_O_13___A___B_1912_3_mas.jpg"
        alt="Inro"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Japanese lacquer and coral inro with a branch of hozuki</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>