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context: lacquerwork > objects > inro
Origins
The word means 'seal-basket': not for holding sea mammals (haha yes get on with it) but seals for signing documents, plus ink. This use continued, but it gradually became used more for medicines - there was a long craze for bonkers patent medicines. One very popular one was allegedly made from dust from Egyptian mummies! Other uses were known (such as tiny portable shrines), but utility was not their only point, as the next section discusses.