Featured Look at this adorable Japanese lacquer container

I have had this for a while and can't remember ever showing it.
This little container is Lacquer on wood. It is about 6 1/2" diameter.
It is unmarked so it has me wondering as to the age of this cute little piece. Any and all thoughts appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Mikey

 

That is so sweet.

1940s? Just a guess.

 

That child (I hesitate to assign gender) is wearing a hat that looks like half a peanut...but probably isn't.
Between the hat, the fish in a cart, an' the rest of their garments may be some clue as to age, if those can be correctly placed in time. Oh, yeah...the 2 dots on their forehead, too!

 

I have a similar but uncovered lacquer bowl; red with black interior, a bit larger iirc...a serving piece, perhaps. I'll dig it out an' post it here, Mikey...Thanks!

 

That is awful precious! I’d only guess at a range of 1910-1950’s maybe. Not sure it would fit in with my collection but I do love it.

 

Very cute.

 

Cute little thing! I bet @Shangas knows how old it is, and no doubt where it came from.

 

Everybody knows that part of being a responsible and loving pet-owner, is taking your fish for its daily walk.

The style of painting looks Japanese. I reckon it's a little girl. The pull-along toy would suggest to me, late 1800s or early 1900s. Japan didn't really start opening up to the West until the 1850s/60s, around the time of the Meiji Restoration, so I'd say this piece was created after that time. I don't know a huge amount about Japanese history (China is more my thing) but I'd hazard a guess that toys like this didn't exist in Japan before Western influence.

Even then, that influence would've taken some time to permeate society, so I'd reckon the very late 1800s (1890s-say) through to the first decade or two of the 20th century.

 

I thought she was bringing a fish home from the market. But I like @Shangas story much better!

Mikey

 

It is a boy imo, the hat he is wearing looks like a Shinto priest hat.
Like in China, the goldfish is a symbol of wealth, prosperity, and being blessed to have children.
So it seems there is a religion-auspicious symbol-child connection.

 

Guessing it is a Japanese lacquered Bento Box (lunch box). Or it could just be an ordinary covered bowl.

Hand-painted depicting a Gosho Doll (Imperial Palace Doll) wearing an Eboshi cap/hat, pulling a bream fish on a cart.

The two dots on the forehead "might" be Hikimayu.
But the little guy still has his own eyebrows so might mean something different.
(It used to be a fashion in ancient Japan to completely plucked out their eyebrows and paint eyebrows higher on the forehead.)

Is it possible the marks just above the gold Eboshi hat is an artist's signature?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikimayu

https://honolulu.emuseum.com/objects/7668/gosho-ningyo-palace-doll

 

I forgot to tell you that the knob on the lid probably originally had a silk cord with tassels at the end wrapped around it.

I started simply with Bento Box and have gone down a rabbit-hole of Gosho Ningyo dolls, Eboshi hats and Hikimayu celestial eyebrows, lol.

 

Thank you very much Laura. Reminded me of this little guy I have in my collection.
Missing his hands, but still I love him.

 

Wow, same hat, same hairdo.
Somewhere along the line I read that the black Eboshi cap is/was official, like high ranking military and emperors.
The gold eboshi is ceremonial worn religious festivals.

 

Wow! Who knew that it's such a widespread motif! Gosho doll -- learned my something new today ! Thanks!

 

They're really cute. I bet they still make fish toys today, and that little kids love them. THey have bright colors and they move.