Japan and its history through the cigarette case scenes
Architecture Culture Art Special Cases
A floating temple hall Ukimido and Shokaro ryokan by Tadakazu
Preamble
I bought this cigarette case in September 2023, but received it only in early March, 2024. It took to the auction house, which I have never dealt with before, more than a month to organize the shipping of my item through a third-party shipping company. The latter did a mistake in my home address and the package, already being in my city in early December, has been held for investigation. Another month passed in numerous phone conversations with the local post office representatives in hope to resolve the issue as painlessly as possible. Those had no effect and the package had been sent back to the sender and reached them in early February. This time the auction house cared for the shipping themselves, at their own expence, and one month later I finally received my case. By then it travelled 3 times over the Atlantic ocean and who knows how many kilometers by post carriers in the USA and Europe.

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Package contents
The package contained a cigarette case inside its, presumably, original box made of Paulownia tree covered with a dark lacquer.
The wooden box doesn't bear any markings or labels, so we are leaving it aside, going straight to the cigarette case itself.


The cigarette case
The scene on the exterior is showing a lake on which a temple, connected to the lake's bank by a small bridge, is present on the right half of the case. The left half depicts a flock of birds and a snowy mountain on the other bank of the lake.
In addition, kanji carved in the metal appear in two places: a maker's signature at the bottom-right corner of the right half and an inscription on the left half of the case.
The signature says

唯一作


which means "Made by Tadakazu".
The inscription is more complex and says

松華樓主人好


which can be literally translated as "favor/preference of the master/owner of Shōkarō". Here, 松華樓 is "Shōkarō", 主人 is "master/owner" and 好 ("favor/preference") back at the time meant that the product was designed, ordered and manufactured according to the taste / favor / requirements of the owner of the place inscribed. Such a practice was quite common. Firms ordered products with the inscription in advance and distributed among their most valuable customers.

Example of an inkstone, ordered by the request of the 古梅園 ("Kobaien") company, engraved with 古梅園主人好 ("favor of the master of Kobaien").

We will now try to understand how the three: the scene, the dedication and the maker, are connected.

The Shōkarō
Shōkarō (松華樓) was a famous ryokan (旅館) in Kyoto. Ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. However, back then ryokans often provided more services than just a bed to sleep, and included meals and a Geisha company. Consequently, many ryokans were more brothels than inns.
Shōkarō building was located on the west side of the Donguri bridge (団栗橋) over the Kamo River, at 139 Saito-cho, Shijo-sagaru, Kiyamachi, Shimogyo-ku, 600-8012.

Location of the Shōkarō ryokan on a vintage, circa 1933, (left) and modern (right) maps.

Shōkarō ryokan was established by Morikawa Yaemon (森川彌右衞門). Morikawa was born in Kyoto in September 1843. He was appointed as a kocho (similar to mayor) in 1876 and has been serving as a member of the district council since 1894. From 1900 to 1904 he served as a gakumu-iin (member of the school's administration committee) of the Nagamatsu Elementary School.
He devoted himself to various charity projects, including distributing ten koku (~1,500 kg) of rice to the poor in Shimogyo-ku with the help of the local government in April 1906. In May 1906 he donated 100 yen (~$600 today) to the Red Cross Society. His donation for various projects including school rebuildings is estimated to amount to a commendable 1,000 yen (~$6,000 today).
The original house, called "Hitogoto Kaisho" ("人事會所"), was built in 1837. Rumors said that they lent money to various daimyo (feudal lords) and others under the pretext of selling Korean ginseng. Due to this relationship, unlike ordinary merchant houses, they used high-grade furnishings such as solid wooden planks, ornate metal fittings and iron-barred, metal-mesh hanging lanterns, with red walls outside. The latter gave the place its non-official name of a "red-wall Shōkarō" (赤壁松華樓).

Shōkarō ryokan in May 2019, as seen from the Kiyamachi street.

Initially the ryokan consisted of 12 rooms located in a two-story building (on the Kiyamachi street side, with the view to the west over the Shimogyo ward) and a restaurant (on the river's bank side, with the view to the east over the Kamo river and the Higashiyama ward). In 1930s the accommodations part of the Shōkarō ryokan was renovated and became the largest non-wooden building in the area.
After World War II Shōkarō ryokan was a popular place among Japanese filmmaking industry members. Film directors Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明) and Kozaburo Yoshimura (吉村公三郎) stayed in Shōkarō for many months to concentrate on writing scenarios and film pre-production. Around 1970 two additional floors have been added to the accommodations part of the ryokan, doubling the number of rooms from 12 to 24.

Shōkarō ryokan in Kyoto in 2020. The Kamo river and Donguri bridge are seen on the right.

In early 2021 the four-story building has been demolished, leaving only the historical wooden red-wall restaurant facing the Kamo river.

The maker
Unfortunately, I have no information regarding the maker (唯一, Tadakazu). It seems that he was a highly skilled independent artist, who, as many others at the time, worked both on orders by individuals as well as on orders from big firms and workshops.

A bronze box by Tadakazu.

There are claims in the Japanese antiques community that Tadakazu made works for the famous Nogawa company. In particular, this cigarette case could have been requested by Nogawa, and there are at least two more reasons that support this:
1. Nogawa workshop was located one block to north-west, just 200 meters, from the Shōkarō. The famous Shinmonzen and Furumonzen streets were not too far from the ryokan either. However, among the metalworkers in the area, it was Nogawa who was well-known for his bronze works, as well as works in other copper alloys: shakudo and shibuichi, the latter being the base metal of this cigarette case.
2. The tiny inlaid shakudo silhouette of trees is a fingerprint of Nogawa works. A simple plain shakudo silhouette appearing on the background of even heavily elaborate works with difficult inlaying techniques, high relief and mixed metals used, made Nogawa works distinguishable from the products made by others.


The scene
The scene depicted on this cigarette case is of a Lake Biwa. The small building on the right half of the case is the famous "floating temple" hall, Ukimidō (浮御堂), a part of the Mangetsu-ji temple.

The "floating temple" hall, Ukimidō.

The hogyo (square pyramidal roof) building itself has been rebuilt a few times over the centuries. It was first built in the 10th century by monk Genshin (源信, also Enshin Sozu) from the Enryakuji temple on Mt. Hiei. It is believed that the monk, looking down from Mt. Hiei, saw a suspicious light in Lake Biwa every night. Finally checking that place using a net, he scooped up a glowing golden Amida Butsu. In memorial of this he carved 1,000 Buddha statues and created the Ukimidō to house them in the middle of the lake. It became a place of prayer for safety on the lake and the swift rescue of those in danger, and such faith concerning water still protects the region to this day.

The Ukimidō in 1903.

The current temple building was built in 1937 and renovated in 1982, yet it fully retains the atmosphere of the original construction. The building still houses altars and 1,000 small Amida Buddha figures. The Kannondo in the temple grounds also contains an Important Cultural Property in the form of a statue of Sho Kannon.

Often, the only mountain appearing on japanese cigarette cases is Mt. Fuji. Here, however, the mountain that is shown on the left half of the cigarette case is a 1,377-metre-high Mt. Ibuki, the highest peak of the Shiga prefecture.

Mount Ibuki, as seen from the Mishima pond (left) and from the Lake Biwa on the case (right).

Mount Ibuki is located 13 km to the north-east from Lake Biwa and 55 km from the Ukimidō. Consequently, the scene on the cigarette case is geographically correct: for a spectator, standing on the west bank of Lake Biwa and looking south, the Ukimidō will appear on the right-hand side, while Mount Ibuki will be to the left, on the opposite lake's bank.

Map, showing the locations of Ukimidō and Mount Ibuki.

The area, in particular the Ukimidō, is famous for being featured in one of the Eight Views of Ōmi, "wild geese returning home at Katata": Wild geese returning home at Katata (Katata no rakugan 堅田落雁): Ukimido.
Alighting geese cannot be seen always, however the little temple near Katata in the square hōkyō-style, detached from the lakeside, connected by a bridge. The first part of the name, uki, is the same as in Ukiyo-e, meaning "floating". Midō means "temple".
The views were inspired by the Eight Views of Xiaoxiang in China which were first painted in the 11th century and then brought to Japan as a popular theme in the 14-15th centuries. The theme was then used to describe Ōmi (today Shiga) province in poetry. It then became a popular subject for woodblock print and ukiyo-e artists such as Suzuki Harunobu and Utagawa Hiroshige. Hiroshige alone produced nearly 20 different series of the Eight Views of Ōmi. Other artists followed.

Two "Descending Geese at Katata" woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, showing the same scene as the cigarette case: the Ukimidō on Lake Biwa, a flock of geese and Mount Ibuki.

More images of the cigarette case can be found here and here.

References