Case (Inrō) with Design of Seated Monkey Looking at a Wasp

Case (Inrō) with Design of Seated Monkey Looking at a Wasp is a nineteenth-century brass-metal inrō with designs attributed to Mori Sosen (森狙仙, 1747-1821), held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 29.100.811). Inrō were small tiered cases hung from the obi of a man's kimono — originally for carrying personal seals or medicines — and by the late Edo period they had become a luxury accessory whose decoration commissioned the leading painters and craftsmen of the day. This example, in incised brass with various applied metals and a silver interior, measures roughly 6.7 by 5 by 2 cm. The principal scene transposes one of Sosen's most characteristic subjects — a single Japanese macaque, alert and watchful — to the curved surface of a portable accessory: the monkey crouches and looks up at a wasp on the obverse, with a reverse design of crabs with a fan beside waves. As the Osaka animal painter most identified with monkey subjects, Sosen designed for craftsmen as well as on silk, and inrō bearing his designs survive in major collections of Edo-period craft. The Met's example is in the public domain through the museum's open-access program.