context: lacquerwork > artists

Difficulties of attribution

There isn't too much in the world of art which poses as many awkward problems of attribution as Japanese lacquerware. Many of the best individuals, families and shops worked for the court, shogun or daimyo, and were forbidden from signing their work for them - and most surviving inro, for example, are unsigned. Many established attributions of any age mostly look more like wishful thinking than sound deduction. There were plenty of forgeries, especially when the West developed a taste for this work, and an interest in certain names. There is the studio/school-of problem, worse in Japan than elsewhere, discussed in the painting section: the master might sign outstanding work by a student, and would often leave his seal and name to his best student at death. On the other hand, because good lacquerware was extremely difficult to repair, it's not uncommon to find a signature affixed by the repairer...

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