Stacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) Design

Stacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) Design

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This elegant food box, created for a celebratory meal, features garment racks draped with kimonos and clothing accessories. Such images were called “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode), a phrase used in waka poetry that here suggests the absent but presumably elegant owner of the depicted garments. Such imagery became popular on folding screens and on decorative arts from the late sixteenth century onward. In this design, the lower panel of the lacquer stand includes a scene from Chapter 51, “A Boat Cast Adrift” (Ukifune), in which the amorous Prince Niou takes Ukifune away by boat on a cold early spring day to a mansion across the Uji River. On the way, they stop at the Isle of Orange Trees and exchange poetry, the moment captured on the box.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) DesignStacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) DesignStacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) DesignStacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) DesignStacked Food Box (Jūbako) with “Whose Sleeves?” (Tagasode) Design

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.