Further Media
Producer unknown to us
Picnic Set (Sage Jubako) in the Shape of a Tea Leaf Vessel
Asia, Japan
Prior to 1882
Wood, turned, lacquered
Heinrich Botho Scheube (doctor, lecturer)
Purchased by the museum from Scheube in 1909
OAs 04736
Together, the four stacked food bowls and a sake pot with a rotating spout form a lidded tea-leaf jar (Chatsubo) with lacquer decoration depicting fallen autumn leaves and thawing snow.
The collector of this object, Botho Scheube, studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Leipzig in the 1870s. He then went to the Kyoto Medical School, where he worked as a physician and lecturer for five years at the invitation of the Japanese government.
During this time, Scheube also maintained close ties with the German Society for the Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, which had its own museum of Japanese cultural history in Tokyo. It was probably here that Scheube’s interest in Japanese art and cultural objects was awakened, prompting him to amass a collection of Japanese art and everyday objects that eventually numbered more than 700 pieces.
Dietmar Grundmann