A SUPERB GOLD LACQUER SUZURIBAKO DEPICTING RAIKO’S DREAMJapan, early 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Published & Exhibited: Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Scattered Gold and Midnight Gloss: Japanese Lacquer from the Anbinder Collection, 31 March – 8 July 2007.Of rounded rectangular form with a flush-fitting (inrobuta) cover with rounded gold fundame chiri-i (edges) and silver rims. The exterior bearing a densely sprinkled hirame ground finely decorated in gold, silver, and black hiramaki-e and takamaki-e with a Japanese samurai’s bow (yumi), arrows (ya), quiver (ebira), and three-fingered gauntlet (mitsugake) under a large curtain.The interior of the cover bearing a roiro ground similarly decorated and with iro-e kirikane to depict two birds in flight over densely painted waves above a seashore with pines, other trees, a small pavilion, and craggy rockwork, and below thick clouds.The interior of the box fitted with a board (ita) with an oblong inkstone (suzuri) and rectangular waterdropper (suiteki) of shibuichi with gilt floral design, and a rectangular tray, each bearing a dense gold hirame ground similarly decorated with waves, grasses, and a pine tree.SIZE 4 x 19.2 x 21.4 cmCondition: Good condition with minor wear, the interior tray with a small age crack, the interior of the box with few small nicks, the interior of the cover with minor signs of warping, the sides of the box with minor touchups to lacquer.Provenance: Heian Art, 18 December 2000, Kyoto. The Paul and Helen Anbinder Collection, acquired from the above. Paul Anbinder (b. 1940) is a retired editor who was a director at important publishers including Random House and Hudson Hills. Helen Anbinder (1942-2022) was an education administrator who ran the Inter-village Continuing Education Program for Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, and Irvington, New York. The couple were avid museumgoers and collectors of art. They donated many books and prints from their collection to their alma mater Cornell University and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.With a wood storage box (tomobako).The archery equipment and curtain depicted on the cover of the present suzuribako allude to Minamoto no Mitsunaka (912-997), a noble and skillful archer who held high office under the Emperor Reizei. The interior of the cover depicts Hamamatsu (on the Pacific coast) with pine trees and birds, where Mitsunaka’s son Minamoto no Yorimitsu (Raiko, 948-1021) was believed to have fallen asleep during a hunting expedition, when Jie Hua, the daughter of the great Chinese archer Yang Yaojing appeared to him in a dream. On awakening, Raiko found that Jie Hua had left her father’s bow and arrow beside him.