Wooden kô’bô’dansu 棒箪笥
Price: € 1.800,00
Striking and completely restored wooden kô’bô’dansu 棒箪笥 (small cabinet of drawers with a locking bar) in one section. Fully restored, cleaned and waxed.
The drawer faces and exterior are made of precious ‘Keyaki’ wood (Zelkova – Japanese oak) finished with deep red Shunkei-style 春慶 lacquer still showing the lovely natural wood grain.
The cabinet is configured with four drawers of different size and a hinged door. Two drawers are protected by an arched thick vertical safety bar. Locking bars of the arched type are an indicator of a higher quality cabinet. The hinged door opens to two more small drawers.
All the drawers are very deep and have a lot of volume, for easy storage. They run very smoothly as well.
The decorative iron square lock plated of the top drawer continues on the sides with a scrolling foliage design. The arched bar is equipped with arrow-shaped hardware and a refined chrysanthemum-shaped applique.
The sides are equipped with retractable “pole carrying”-handles for easy transport.
It is in a very good restored condition with some minimal traces of age. Please look at the photos for a condition reference.
Including one original keys for the locking bar and hinged door. This mechanism functions in the old fashioned Japanese way, not very smooth.
Meiji period (1868-1912)
Dimensions
Height 60 cm, Width 90.5 cm, Depth 43.7 cm.
Tansu (箪笥) are traditional Japanese mobile storage cabinets. There are many different types of cabinets; form-wise, but also for the storage of many specific objects, like katana, documents, kimono etc. Starting as first recorded in the Genroku era (1688–1704) of the Edo period (1603–1867), tansu gradually became a feature of Japanese culture and daily life. Both hard and softwoods were used by tansuya (tansu craftsmen), often in combination for a single chest. This way the chests were still light enough for transport, while also housing precious (more heavy) wood types, like keyaki. Also features such as side handles, and being built up from several parts facilitated mobility of such an ingenious piece of furniture.
When shipped we will add a certificate of authenticity.
