Featured Japan/Chinese womens box

Hi everyone,

I obtained this woman’s box/jewelry(?) at an estate sale and find the level of detail and age appearance to be genuine. It is 4.5” long by 2.5” wide and 1.25” tall. Heavy bronze or brass with some type of black stone/wood(?) inlay. The inlay has a oriental woman on top which appears to be holding a five finger baby dragon or maybe a dragon scraf(?). There is gold gilt(?) coloring decorating her wardrobe and hair combs. The detail in her dress is not visible without a loupe but appears to be floral made with mini dots. The two long sides of box are detailed beautifully with leafs and three circle with image inside circles as well as the top and bottom each with one image inside circle. The inside is shinny brassish looking but very aged. The stamp on the bottom is a very old version of Chinese writting per my girl friend that is Chinese and to her best can only guess the first symbole to be Shī(family name?) and the second being ma (horse). These are only guesses. We found the second(left side) word on line. Of course the two sybols combimed in chinese can take on a whole diferent meaning.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

As she's wearing a kimono, I would think Japan as country of origin more likely.

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

Debora

 

Thank you for that quick response, a good start, time to read up

 

Maybe one of the Komai family members mark, I don't know if it is but it's a place to start while waiting for a definitive answer.
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=904&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=uThvW7qkO6S0gge50KPIAg&q=Komai+mark

 

Sobei Komai as seen on the advertisement shown here.
http://cefiro.main.jp/Komai_Otojiro.html

 

Wow，thank you very much for your help. It most definetly is in the Komai Family markings. This is great news for me. Been looking for three days...

Thanks again

 

I’m a bit curious, out of all the pieces I can find from the Komai family, I don’t see any other piece that has a persons figure such as this one. Could this have been a family member piece?

 

It is gorgeous, mmarco.

Do you mean made specifically for use by a member of the Komai family? I don't think so, they made more objects with women:

The picture doesn't copy very well, but it is on this page, if you click on the thumbnail you can see it properly:
http://www.smokingsamurai.com/KOMAI_SEIBEI.html

 

Yes I have to agree regarding family member now. After looking at some of their pieces in museums, the high end work is astonishing.

I am narrowing it down to this event in their life(see image)

Thank you for your reply.

 

@ mmarco102

What is the top panel made of? The photos show very little and it may not be Japanese damascene to start with.

 

Since they were originally tsuba, etc makers, I think you have to think along those lines, like this one:

 

Very good question, and I really would like to know. The inside of the box appears to be brass(a guess, see new images here), not positive. If you look closely at the last picture from the original post you will notice the the inlay is just starting to barely lift(un-noticeable unless your looking for it. That inlay is made of the same material the the woman sculpture seems to be made of and my guess is as stated above "tsuba" as I believe iron wouldn't stand the time.

 

The tsuba is the katana (sword) guard. They could be made of different materials. The early ones were iron, later ones were often made of some of the many typically Japanese alloys and decorated with other metals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword_mountings#Tsuka

 

Probably made of the same dark material you find on the items near the bottom of this link.

http://www.smokingsamurai.com/KOMAI_SEIBEI.html

 

Try a magnetic and see if it's magnetic(iron). And go from there.

 

Yes, the magnet works both on the lady and the flat area below her feet.

So would the entire box be iron with 24K plateing on inside too, or is it still possible that the brassy look is brass?

 

Can't tell from photos how the design was applied to the main box. The top iron piece used a number of techniques,but photos really aren't showing any specifics.For information of the techniques see link.... https://wombat1138.dreamwidth.org/103378.html

 

if it is anything like Japanese Samurai metalwork inspired jewellery, it is gilded brass. The gold layer would be extremely thin, and I can see some verdigris on your box, indicating copper (like in brass).

 

Just wanting to thank everyone again for your help with this item.