Japanese Carved Card Case

Two men sit in the grass beneath pine boughs, and one is deeply absorbed in a small object.

This carved card case is from Japan, from the Meiji period (1868 – 1912 CE). It is bone. Finely engraved bone and ivory were popular in Meiji Japan, often for small personal pieces such as card cases and boxes. Fine incised lines show a seated figure in a patterned robe and a kneeling man in a plain one, bent close to the ground. Pine branches with needled clusters cross the upper half. The surface is cream with warm ink-colored lines. It is 2.75 inches wide, 0.38 deep and 4.63 high.

A great deal of pine in a very small pocket.