The boxes have four bracket feet which continue the form of the grooved corners.
The lids are decorated in thinly raised makie with a shrine gate, or torii, and two buildings enclosed by a brushwood fence;
the bodies with a pavilion and a figure in a landscape.
The 1835 Burghley Inventory records: ‘Japan Closet, Japan in the Glass case opposite the Door(s) sic, 2 Boxes with 3 divisions in each Box B.G.’
The 1867 Burghley Inventory records: ‘Cabinets, No 88 Japan Closet, 2 black and gold japan boxes, with 3 divisions in each box.’.
