A gold-lacquer and metal-inlaid seven-case inro By a member of the Kajikawa Family and Ishiguro Masayoshi, 19th century The rectangular oval body with a mura-nashiji ground, decorated with the kachi-kachi yama legend, inlaid in gold, shakudo, copper, shibuichi and pewter high relief with a rabbit standing triumphantly towards the prow of his boat, about to strike with an oar the tanuki who clings onto a sinking barge, the reverse with the full moon inlaid in silver high relief, rising above the turbulent sea and the interior of rich gyobu; signed for the lacquer Kajikawa saku with a red pot seal Ei and for the metalwork, Masayoshi with a kao within a rectangular gold reserve; with a black glass ojime, unsigned. 8.8cm (3½in) high. Footnotes: リザーブ設定無し 兎に狸（かちかち山）図蒔絵貼付彫金印籠　銘「梶川作　榮（壺印）」「政美（書判）」　19世紀 Provenance: Gretchen Kroch Kelsch collection. Purchased from Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1987. Wrangham collection, no.1839. The kachi-kachi yama story is one of the few Japanese folktales in which a badger (tanuki) is the villain rather than the boisterous, corpulent alcoholic. The episode depicted here is when the tanuki challenged the rabbit to a life and death contest to prove who was the better creature. They were each to build a boat and race across a lake in them. The rabbit carved its boat out of a fallen tree trunk, but the foolish tanuki made a boat of mud. At first, the two competitors were evenly matched, but the badger's mud boat began to dissolve in the middle of the lake and instead of saving the badger, the rabbit strikes him with an oar, and proclaimed his friendship with the innocent human couple whom the wicked badger had earlier inflicted its horrible deeds - thus revealing his revenge. The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art: Part III, lot 235. www.bonhams.com/auctions/20189/lot/235/ Lot to be sold without reserve. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com