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Lot Essay
The Portuguese 48-card deck arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century. It had four suits - cups, swords, coins, and clubs - said to represent the four classes of medieval Europe: priests, knights, merchants, and peasants. The foreign practice of card games spread quickly and became subject to constant regulation by the Tokugawa shogunate, which disapproved of gambling. In Japan, the design of cards went through various permutations to circumvent the proscriptions and developed separately from the rest of the world also due to the seclusion policy. In due course, a revised pack was made, called Unsun Karuta - a mix of European, Chinese, and Japanese motifs.
The whimsical rendition of the figure combines the knight’s armour that resembles that of a Japanese, the Queens’ dresses with karakusa scrolls and shippo design, and partially-understood motifs like the beautiful bundle staves interwoven like a bamboo fence with mon [family crest]-like motifs and the upside-down cups, with Japanese touches. The Japanese, not quite understanding the motif of the chalice, favoured picturing it upside down like a Buddhist jewel, with the stem sprouting from the top. The dragon motif, a feature of the original Iberian set long associated with Portugal, must have been particularly popular in Japan, even though the winged dragon suggests St. George - a Christian motif that surely would have displeased Japanese authorities.
For another example of a four-tier jubako with card design, see: Sakai City Museum ed., Nanban shikki - shitsugei ni miru tozai koryu [Namban lacquerware - Cultural Exchanges between East and West through Lacquer Craft], (Osaka, 1983), p. 70, no. 82.
For more about Unsun Karuta, see:
Sezon Museum of Art and Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, eds., ‘Porutogaru to Nanban bunka’ ten: mezase toho no kuniguni [‘Portugal and Nanban culture’ exhibition : Via Orientals] (Japan, 1993), p. 216-217, 219, no. 206
and go to the Kyushu National Museum website (Japanese):
http:/www.kyuhaku.jp/museum/museum_info04-07.html
http:/www.kyuhaku.jp/collection/collection_gl02.html
The whimsical rendition of the figure combines the knight’s armour that resembles that of a Japanese, the Queens’ dresses with karakusa scrolls and shippo design, and partially-understood motifs like the beautiful bundle staves interwoven like a bamboo fence with mon [family crest]-like motifs and the upside-down cups, with Japanese touches. The Japanese, not quite understanding the motif of the chalice, favoured picturing it upside down like a Buddhist jewel, with the stem sprouting from the top. The dragon motif, a feature of the original Iberian set long associated with Portugal, must have been particularly popular in Japan, even though the winged dragon suggests St. George - a Christian motif that surely would have displeased Japanese authorities.
For another example of a four-tier jubako with card design, see: Sakai City Museum ed., Nanban shikki - shitsugei ni miru tozai koryu [Namban lacquerware - Cultural Exchanges between East and West through Lacquer Craft], (Osaka, 1983), p. 70, no. 82.
For more about Unsun Karuta, see:
Sezon Museum of Art and Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, eds., ‘Porutogaru to Nanban bunka’ ten: mezase toho no kuniguni [‘Portugal and Nanban culture’ exhibition : Via Orientals] (Japan, 1993), p. 216-217, 219, no. 206
and go to the Kyushu National Museum website (Japanese):
http:/www.kyuhaku.jp/museum/museum_info04-07.html
http:/www.kyuhaku.jp/collection/collection_gl02.html