This cabinet, with its compartments and drawers, has delicate adornments in silver-plated bronze, such as the graceful birds on the central drawers.
It is decorated with paint on lacquer, a typical East Asian art that has been used in Japan since the 6th Century. The cabinet’s black lacquer creates a shiny background that contrasts with the golden paint that has been applied over it.
Several paintings are gathered on this piece. The sides are covered in vines and bunches of grapes, the upper drawer depicts a landscape with boats sailing towards the horizon and a variety of paintings of birds and flowers adorn the black surface.
As with other objects in this collection, this cabinet is representative of the arts and crafts that were exported from Yokohama during the Meiji Period. Among other things, collectors appreciated the ingenious distribution of its drawers, with different heights and sizes to accommodate diverse objects.