Martin Burgoyne, Geisha (CHESTS, CABINETS & BOXES 2023)

Photos:

Martin Burgoyne

Geisha On a holiday to Japan some years back I had visited an impressive exhibition of traditional Japanese woodblock prints with gave me an idea for some marquetry for the outside of a box. Given that the wooden blocks used to produce the prints were carved from solid timber, I thought they would be relatively simple to reproduce in marquetery – hmmm well sort of! Typically, most woodblock prints of Geisha’s depict just the geisha perhaps with a mirror or table included in a very plain background. I decided to put my geishas into traditional Japanese rooms complete with tatami mats and wooden screens. The three main marquetry panels of the box are: On top - ‘Lady with nine chrysanthemums’, changed to ‘Lady with a ogi - fan’, as the vase with its tiny flowers would be too hard to cut! Side one: ‘Geisha playing a shamisen’. Side two: ‘Kodo’ - The Way of incense. The panels include Kanji characters that gives the original prints titles and the artists. These three marquetry panels are enhanced with dots and discs of Mother of Pearl, Opal, Malachite and Turquoise, plus some pyrography, rather than sand shading. For the ends and inside I used small simple traditional Japanese landscape silhouettes, each with a typical red Japanese sun. Hemeji Castle, and the floating Tori gate at Miyajima, on the end panels, and a classic Mt Fuji inside. The style of the box is based on a traditional Japanese stacking lunch box - bento box. Under its lift-off ‘lid’ are five stacking trays, resting on a base tray made from Jarrah, with Ebony risers to help locate the trays. The base tray idea was inspired by the work of Suda Kenji, one of Japan’s woodwork master craftsmen bestowed with the title - 'National Living Treasure'. Under the two top small trays is a full length one, containing a set of six small boxes made from woodie pear. Their lids decorated with kanji characters for numbers one to six, together with traditional Genji-mon symbols, from chapters 1 - 6 of the classic Japanese novel, ‘The Tale of Genji’. The last of the lift-off trays has its own small internal lift-out tray. All the trays are made from Lime with Woodie Pear bandings. The bottoms are Oak veneered with a Cherry band across the middle, and Jarrah veneer underneath.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.