SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891) A Lacquer Four-Case Inro with Butterbur Design Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1877 (2)SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891)A Lacquer Four-Case Inro with Butterbur Design Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1877With four interlocking cases and cover of wood covered in chado-nuri, the sides and top decorated with leaves, shoots, and flower of fuki (butterbur or bog rhubarb), in gold, silver, and ishime-nuri takamaki-e, the compartments and risers gold nashiji, the shoulders and rims gold fundame, signed in faint scratched characters on the base near one of the cord-runners Zeshin, 7.6cm × 5.1cm × 2.1cm (3in × 2in × ¾in); the netsuke of lacquered wood in the form of a group of clams, one of them breathing out a cloud containing a Chinese palace in gold, silver, and red takamaki-e with shell; gold-lacquered ojime with flowers and butterflies, signed in scratched characters on the base Zeshin, 3.5cm x 1.9cm (1⅜in x ¾in); with a fitted wood storage box. (2).Provenance:Inro:Sold at Sotheby's, London, 2223 November 1990, lot 190.Inro and netsuke:Misumi Collection.Sold in these Rooms, 5 November 2014, lot 13.A Royal Collection.Exhibited and Published:Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum) 2012, cat. no.77Zeshin depicted the fuki plant, with its large leaves, in two panels dating respectively from 1877 and 1882 (Nezu Bijutsukan 2012, cat. no.51 and Earle and Goke 1996, cat. no.27). The earlier of the two panels uses techniques very similar to the present lot, suggesting that it may have been made around the same time. The season expressed in this design is spring, when the shoots of fuki can be fried as tempura or used to flavour miso paste.The idea of the 'Clam's Dream', seen on the netsuke, derives from a Chinese chronicle of the first century B.C., where it is stated that when a huge clam breathes on the surface of the sea it makes the shape of a city with buildings. The motif was popular from the late 18th century after to its publication in an illustrated book (Toriyama Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Yagyo zu [Collection of the Night Procession of 100 Freaks from Past and Present], Anatsu, Ise 1781).