Help translating antique Japanese lacquer transport boxes & Noh mask

Hi,

I'm new here.

I joined out of an interest of all things to do with Japanese, especially the art world.

My Grandmother owns a small collection of Japanese antiques, especially lacquer boxes.

Many of these still have their transport boxes. I'm helping her go through them and try and translate their meaning.

With a few of them however, I've hit some slight snags. I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to help me out?

Thanks,

Regards,

first picture
center
賞 日本毛織株式會社
Prize, Japan Wool Textile Co., Ltd.

The company still exists.

lower left
大阪 尚美本造
Osaka Shōbi Hon-zukuri

Shōbi is the name of a company 尚美堂 Shōbidō.

Hon-zukuri refers to a making style of something.

second
朱金絵盃基
vermilion gold lacquer sake cup and sake cup table

Here's the same one as yours.

third
執金剛神
Shikkongō-jin/Shūkongō-jin/Shukongō-jin
(Three different readings exist.)

Thanks a lot for the translation.

My Gran had always assumed the text was signatures. It's interesting to see that some of these companies are still going.

Also, those red lacquer dishes are indeed very similar. The décor is a little different however.

Both she and I are very grateful.

Novaluna said:

those red lacquer dishes are indeed very similar. The décor is a little different however.

Click to expand...

I was talking about the wood box in the second picture. It's not just the same box (not only the writings are the same, but the position of the hole at the upper left and the grain of the wood are also the same), but you used completely the same picture as the one posted in the auction site I linked above. What does this mean? Where did you take your picture?

the picture you attached


the picture in the auction site

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I hadn't noticed the similarity between the photos.

They were sent to me by my grandmother. Who apparently, doesn't know how to transfer photos from her camera to a computer. So, instead, she thought she'd find pictures of "similiar" items. Not sure what site she used but my guess would be one of these Japanese to English auction sites. Thanks to some research, I found the mask as well (Also on Yahoo auctions). I'm sure I could find the other text with a bit more digging. Apparently, she thought that the characters would be close enough from one to another (not too sure that she understands the basic principle of kanji).

I'm guessing this means that all of the kanji translated are therefore different from the items that she actually has.

Sorry for the waste of time.

Well, how did you know that the decor was a little different between hers and the ones in the auction site, then? Are you saying that you saw them directly with your own eyes before, and remember it in detail? If you saw them via net, you can also see the wood box as well, and we can see it, too, needless to say, right?

She can't be the one who said the decor was a little different. If you told her the address of the auction site I provided, she must immediately realize that the site was exactly the page she had taken the picture from, and it's quite unnatural that she didn't tell that to you.

Can't you contact with her? Why do you just guess the reason instead of asking her directly? You told her the results of my translation, therefore both she and you were very grateful, no?

Tell me your next story, and show us pictures of her items somehow, if she really has them (or if she really exists).

Here is the auction site for the object appearing in the third photo:


It's fascinating how Grand-maman can deftly navigate English-language auction sites, and download and send photos from them, yet can't figure out how to transfer files from a camera to a PC. Sacré bleu!