The lacquer artist Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) was one of the elite group of craftsmen, schooled in the fashions of the Edo period who made the great leap from the dictates of the feudal society into the Age of Enlightenment and Westernization in Japan in the Meiji era (1868 -1912).
He was known as the master of kawarinuri, the technique of lacquer to imitate the irregular surface of metal or stoneware. Here, he adds a further twist by making the caddy in bamboo body, which is extremely light in contrast to the heavy stoneware caddy one would expect to encounter. He made lacquer works of tea utensils such as vases, vessels and trays in the same technique. For other works by Zeshin in similar style, see Shibata Zeshin: From Lacquer Arts To painting (Tokyo: Nezu Museum , 2012), no. 61-63.