Japanese "Namban" Chest. Momoyama Period (1573 - 1615)

Japanese "Namban" Chest. Momoyama Period (1573 - 1615)
Chest in black-lacquered pine, (urushi) with gold and silver powder decoration (maki-e) and mother of Pearl incrustations depicting birds and floral motifs.
27 x 41,5 x 30 cm.
With regard to the technique used on this piece, it is very interesting to read the explanations by Professor Yayoi Kawamura, especially his index cards for the different Namban objects kept in the Museo de Artes Decorativas in Madrid: “this is a piece of furniture in which very small-sized decoration of a horror vacui character based on vegetation and floral motifs is developed on a base of black lacquer (urushi). The decoration is made with the technique of drawing with gold and silver powders (maki-e) and mother of pearl incrustations (raden).
The furniture belongs to what is known as Namban style, which encompasses a series of furniture made from 1580-1630 in Japan with Japanese urushi lacquer destined to be exported to the European world, mainly Spain and Portugal”.
The Japanese made this type of furniture exclusively for exportation, to the taste of Spanish and Portuguese merchants who arrived there and traded through the routes of the galleons that travelled mostly between Japan and Manila and from there to New Mexico, before arriving in Europe.
Between 1545 and 1649 lacquer-worked chests arrived in the West and began to form part of the collections of royalty and the nobility, although on occasions they were donated to convents and churches, where they were used as reliquaries or eucharist chests for Maundy Thursday.
In Spain, apart from the namban pieces kept in the Museo de Artes Decorativas in Madrid and others, such as the marvellous lectern which is kept in Salamanca, in the Dominican Museum of the Convent of San Esteban, Navarra is the province that has the greatest number of pieces of Namban art, possibly thanks to the relationship between Saint Francis Xavier and the Jesuits with Japan.
There are some flaws, particularly the lack of a frontal bar which has resulted in the door being slightly moved. The restoration was probably done in the 18th century.

Bibliographic reference:
- Kawamura, Yayoi. "La laca japonesa de exportación en España. Del estilo Namban al pictórico." Archivo Español de Arte LXXXII, 325 (209): 87-93.
- Kawamura, Yayoi (dir) AA.VV, "Lacas Namban. Huellas de Japón en España: IV centenario de la embajada Keicho", Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Madrid, 2013, pages.378-381, number. 19 and pages. 388-389, number. 21.