Posted 11 years ago
toracat
(728 items)
Item Price Qty Total
# 13230805 - Utagawa Lacquered Stackable Boxes $13.99 1 $13.99 HELLO! Paid $13.99 for these 7 boxes, large 7 3/4 in. X 7 3/4 in. and 2 1/2 in. tall, cool they stack or have individual lids, I will keep my Mexico silver and other jewelry in them, do not think they are valuable or old but cute, do not know any information on these boxes, any help appreciated!! Don Thanks for looking!
thank you!
These stacked boxes are called j?bako (??) and they are usually used for food presentation, to store and serve food for special occasions such as New Year's. Red is an appropriately festive colour, and the crane is an auspicious motif that represents long life (and which is frequently used in the new year). The kanji (Japanese characters) simply say "Utagawa".
I don't think these are very old, but the cranes are handsome and certainly have lots of energy!
The forum stripped out the special characters.
The boxes are called jubako -- sometimes transliterated as juubako (because the 'u' is long).