Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers

Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like many other tea-ceremony incense boxes, this work might have originally been part of a twelve-piece cosmetic box set (jūnitebako), where it would have served as a container for tooth-blackening material. This meticulously crafted small box is decorated with an auspicious composition of plovers and evergreen pine trees on a seashore scattered with shells. Plovers are associated with longevity because their cry, chiyo, is a homonym for “a thousand years.”

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Incense Box (Kogo) with Pines and PloversIncense Box (Kogo) with Pines and PloversIncense Box (Kogo) with Pines and PloversIncense Box (Kogo) with Pines and PloversIncense Box (Kogo) with Pines and Plovers

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.