The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 15, 2022

Writing Box with Spitting Courtesan

唾を吐く遊女蒔絵硯箱

early to mid-1800s

Part of a set. See all set records

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

Lacquered wood with maki-e (image made of sprinkled gold dust)

Box: 21.6 x 19.8 x 3.2 cm (8 1/2 x 7 13/16 x 1 1/4 in.); Closed: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.); Cover: 20.7 x 20.7 cm (8 1/8 x 8 1/8 in.)

Worcester R. Warner Collection 1963.260

Location

235A Japanese

Description

The design on this writing box shows a courtesan who has just completed an impressive feat of spitting the term shinobukoi (忍恋), which could be translated as “hidden love” or “unrequited love,” on an earthen wall. The phrase appeared in classical Japanese poetry anthologies produced by nobles writing in ink on the finest decorated papers. Here, the confining walls of the brothel district become a space for public announcement in graffiti, with the medium being perhaps tea.

Provenance
Tomkinson
?-1963
(N. V. Hammer, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1963-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1963-present
Citations
Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963): 263–294. Mentioned: no. 64, p. 292; Reproduced: no. 64, p. 284 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 285 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 285 archive.org
Pekarik, Andrew. Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900: Selections from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. Comparative material from the Charles A. Greenfield Collection reproduced: cover, color plate no. 22, p. 78
Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. cat. no. 3
Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 54–55
Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 54 - 55
Exhibition history

Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 26, 1963-January 5, 1964).

The Lure of Painted Poetry: Cross-cultural Text and Image in Korean and Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).

Japan's Floating World (Japanese art rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.260