Lot 290: Shiomi Masanari

By Shiomi Masanari, 19th century
The roiro ground dusted with gold powder and lacquered in gold and slight-coloured togidashi with a fleeing horse pursued by three men, two wielding sticks while the third carries a flaming torch aloft, the interior of nashiji, signed Shiomi Masanari.
8cm (3 1/8in).

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Provenance: purchased from Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1986.
Wrangham collection, no.1834.

The rarely-seen subject illustrates the Shimotodachi festival, which takes place on the 16th June each year, in Usaka jinja, a Shinto temple in Usakamura. Women who have committed adultery during the previous year are taken to the temple to confess and the sacred horse is ritually beaten as a symbolic scapegoat in their stead.

The depiction on this inro is taken from Ehon Tsuboshi, by Tachibana Morikuni, published in Osaka in 1730.