Style of Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747)A lacquer ryoshibako (document box) with biwa and chrysanthemumsEdo period (1615-1868), 19th centuryThe black-lacquer surface of ink-cake texture, overlaid in porcelain, mother-of-pearl and boxwood with a four-string biwa (lute), embellished with red and white chrysanthemums, inscribed Ritsuo with seal Kan 15 3/4 x 12 3/8 x 5 1/2in (40 x 31.4 x 13.8cm)注脚ProvenancePurchased from Ashkenazie and Co., San Francisco, 1996.PublishedStephen Little and Edmund J. Lewis, View of the Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes: The Lewis Collection of Suzuribako, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2011, cat. no. 54As noted by Little and Lewis, although it bears the signature of Ogawa Haritsu the present lot is more likely the work of Michizuki Hanzan (1743-1790) or a later talented artist such as Sakai Kyozan or Miura Kenya (1825-1889). The biwa probably refers to the ninth- or early-tenth-century blind poet and musician Semimaru.