The Centipede in the Box

2024/01/16

The "Century Akao Collection," inherited by the Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo) from the Century Museum, includes many fubako (letter boxes). A fubako is a long, narrow box with a lid used to store letters, petitions, and other documents. In the "Wakana: Part 1" chapter of The Tale of Genji, an expensive "fubako of aloeswood" appears, used to seal a petition. In the early modern period, letter boxes of various shapes were produced to hold letters, tanzaku (poetry strips), and writing paper, and they were even included in the wedding dowries of daimyo. The letter boxes in the Century Akao Collection are exceptionally brilliant, featuring makie (lacquer sprinkled with gold or silver powder) with motifs of seasonal nature, ranging from plum, cherry, chrysanthemum, and autumn leaves to hydrangea, silver grass, ivy, palm, birds, and butterflies. Among these, the "Letter Box with Dragon in Clouds and Centipede in Makie" is a unique work.

The overlapping lid is decorated with a stylized dragon-in-clouds pattern. The dragon ascending to the heavens on a cloud is a motif that originally developed in China and was used on clothing as a symbol of the emperor. When you remove the lid and peer into the bottom of the box, a large centipede, about the size of a palm, is lurking there. It is not clear why a centipede was placed in a letter box, but the combination of a centipede and a dragon brings to mind the tale of the giant centipede extermination in the Otogi-zoshi story "Tawara no Tota Hidesato." In this story, a giant serpent (a dragon god) living at the Seta Bridge in Omi Province asks Tawara no Tota Hidesato to exterminate its arch-enemy, the centipede, which is depicted as a terrifying monster. On the other hand, since the Kamakura period, the centipede has also been believed to be a messenger of Bishamonten, protecting warriors and bestowing fortune upon people. It is said that the messengers (tsukaiban) of Takeda Shingen (1521-73) displayed centipede-patterned sashimono (battlefield banners) in camp.

This work, which has a very eccentric design for a letter box, is on display at the KeMCo New Year Exhibition 2024: "The Dragon's Vacant Lot." This exhibition brings together Keio University collections featuring dragon motifs, ranging from a letter by Takeda Katsuyori (1546-82), who succeeded Shingen, to Western medieval manuscripts, mysterious animal bones, and Japanese games. Please visit and see the centipede peering up at the heavens from the bottom of the box.

(Yu Homma, Assistant Professor, Keio Museum Commons)