This is a picture I received from a friend.  It is interesting that the flowers that bloomed in the garden are arranged in a Jubako (a tier of lacquered boxes with a lid on top used mainly for transporting cooked food for a short distance).  Speaking of jubako, I remember the New Year’s festival, but we also brought it to cherry blossom viewing and children’s athletic meet.  Nowadays, most of them are made of plastic, and they are mainly functional, but in the old days, there was a jubako coated with lacquer on the wooden box even in an ordinary house. The four-tiered stack was official, and each box was filled with ingredients from the four seasons.  It is a custom from the Edo period when consumer culture became widespread.  As a work of art, Korin Ogata’s “Maki-e Ume Tsubaki Wakamatsu-zu Jubako” is famous.  By the way, when I searched on Rakuten Ichiba, I found a five-tiered jubako for 2,750,000 yen. The jubako was a daily necessities found in every house, and at the same time it was also a work of art with elaborate art.

友人から届いた写真です。庭に咲いた花を重箱に詰めたというのが面白い。重箱といえば、お正月のお節を思い出しますが、お花見とか子供の運動会などにも持っていったものです。今はほとんどがプラスチック製で、機能中心になりましたが、昔は木箱に漆を施した重箱が普通の家にもありました。四段重ねが正式で、それぞれの箱には四季の食材が盛られました。消費文化が広まった江戸時代からの風習です。美術品としては尾形光琳の「蒔絵梅椿若松図重箱」などが有名です。因みに、楽天市場で検索してみたら、2,750,000円の五段式重箱が出品されていました。重箱はどこの家にもあった生活用品であったと同時に芸術の粋を凝らした芸術品でもあったわけです。