Sake Pot (tokuri?); A Boxed Pair

[wlwhittier]

More of my uncle's treasure, as promised in the Oban tray thread a few days ago.

As the title says, there are two of these, in a wood fitted box (tomobako?).
The lid of the box is marked (inside) with 4 Japanese characters and a red 'censor's mark';
The outside is also marked extensively, with 11 or 12 characters in three groups; one group is larger characters.
I believe the box is original to the pair of tokuri.


Each of these are ~12mm high X ~6mm wide, counting bale and spout, respectively. Each is fitted with a vented cover.
The toning is simply tarnish; both interiors are bright.
Each weighs ~112gm with cover.


The (stamped) jungin mark appears to be Meiji era (pre-1924).

The (stamped) maker's mark is the question.

Thanks for looking. wlw

[wlwhittier]

Sorry...the dimensions should be in centimeters, NOT millimeters.

[davidross]

Please post photos of the writing on the box, it sounds like a detailed description that may tell us much more than the marks on the pot itself.

Regards
David R

[wlwhittier]

Above is inside the lid; below is outside.



Thanks, David...I would have put these in with the first pics, but thought two pics per post was an absolute limit. wlw

[dognose]

Hi,

There is no limit to the amount of images that you can post.

Trev.

[davidross]

Many thanks for posting photos of the box. The maker's name is most likely phoneticized Ichirakusai, or possibly Ichirakuzai. Please note that the most famous artist who used the name "Ichirakusai" was a ca 1800 woodblock print artist, Eisui Ichirakutei (or Ichirakusai).

The inner box lid says, "Made by Ichirakusai." The red seal also says "Made by Ichirakusai," and is equivalent to the artist's signature.

The writing on the outside of the box says the following. The line of smaller writing to the right describes the texture of the hammered surface. Directly translated, it is something akin to "petal perforation." The larger writing to the left says, "Pure silver sake-warming vessel." So technically speaking, this is not a tokkuri (usually a porcelain bottle), although it might very well be used to both warm and serve sake. I imagine it being used to warm sake, which would then be transferred to a tokkuri and from there, poured into individual sake cups. The two characters beneath "sake-warming vessel" will require further research, but might be the name of a shop or retailer.

On the sake warmer itself, there is a jungin mark. Beneath that is Ichirakusai in abbreviated characters.

I have found no information on Ichirakusai, other than that he was known for Japanese tea ceremony utensils (kettles, sweets dishes, vases, etc). Probably a master with his own small workshop who took orders from tea ceremony suppliers and department stores.

Stylistically, this sake warmer probably dates to the 1920s, which would make it Taisho (1912-26) or very early Showa (1926-1989), rather than Meiji (1868-1912).

How wonderful to see an object in its original box.

Cheers,
DR