Poem Card Box with Lid

1868–1912

Poem Card Box with Lid, 1868–1912. Kamisaka Sekka (Japanese, 1866–1942). Wood with lacquer; overall: 37.5 x 7.1 cm (14 3/4 x 2 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Leighton R. Longhi 1991.120 Long, decorated cards for the calligraphic presentation of poems are called tanzaku in Japanese. This box is a collaboration between the designer Kamisaka Sekka and the lacquer artist Iwamura Sadazō. Together, they crafted this box with a golden bamboo lid, and filled it with cards decorated with gold leaf designs. Poems written on long poetry cards, or tanzaku, are often collected into albums called tekagami in Japanese.