Object details
Accession number
S13w4.1-2
Primary Creator
Japanese
Full title
Pair of Gate Doors
Creation Date
early 18th century
Provenance
Possibly from Yamato Province, corresponding to the present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū, Japan.Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Matsuki sale at Copley Hall, Boston in November 1903 for $210, lot 327a.
Dimensions
193 x 97.8 cm (76 x 38 1/2 in.) each
Display Media
Carved wood with some light green pigment
Web Commentary
In the center of the upper panel of each door there is a carving of a plum branch with full-grown blossoms in low relief. The carvings show fine craftsmanship in design and technique suggesting that the doors may once have belonged to the gate of a temple or shrine.
Permanent Gallery Location
Second Floor Stairhall and Stairway
Bibliography
Leonard & Co. Catalogue of the Rare Objects in Wood, Pewter and Brass Illustrating the Art of Old Japan to be sold at unrestricted public sale by order of Mr. Bunkio Matsuki (Boston, 9-11 November 1903), p. 16, no. 327a, ill. ("old Buddhist temple in Yamato")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 84. (as Japanese, early 18th century)
Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), p. 83, no. 55. (as Japanese, early 18th century)
Rights and reproductions
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