Clothing Chest from Tsuroka Japanese Antique Furniture Iron Hardware

Beautiful Japanese antique furniture. Bo isho dansu (locking-bar clothing chest). Chests like this were often given to the bride for use in her new home. The imagery of cranes, pine, plum, bamboo, and tortoise are good luck and symbols of longevity. This chest is unusual in it's configuration: three drawers in the top section make it taller than most chests from the region. The opaque lacquer and family crest indicate this was a samurai-class chest from Tsuroka, Shonai Plain area in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. The cabinetry is finger-joined Kiri. Drawers are rabbeted and pegged. Hand forged iron distinctive to wedding chests of the Tsuroka area. Warabite (bracken hand, imitating the curled-up young fern) style handles with embossed and chased escutcheons and jamb plates. Kiri - Paulownia wood Sugi - Japanese cedar wood Tame-nuri (opaque lacquer) Hand forged iron Late 19th Century 34" x 16.5" x 41.5" (length, depth, height) Conserved by Shibui for the Northern American climate. *Sh