Large hand-drum core with grapevines and squirrels

This is the core of a handheld drum used in performances of Noh or Kabuki theater. A drumhead of animal hide would have been affixed to either side with a cord. The lacquer decorations are in the so-called kōdaiji style, which was popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Production of kōdaiji lacquer objects, which often featured floral motifs, involved the painstaking application of many coats of black lacquer, gold and/or silver dust and flakes, and transparent lacquer. The maker’s name, Itoku Yazaemon, is inscribed inside but nothing is known about him.