Box for brushes decorated with figures of Immortals

The outer walls of this Arita box are adorned with a band depicting the Immortals with the following attributes: a stick, scrolls, a pilgrim’s cane, a frog and a bottle of double gourd. One of the Immortals (Zhongli Quan) flies a crane, while another (Li Tieguai) pours an elixir from his bottle onto a dead bird. He Xiangu, the only woman among the Eight Immortals, holds a lotus bud close to her heart. The inner wall is decorated with a band of clouds. (See Filip Suchomel – Marcela Suchomelová, Mistrovská díla japonského porcelánu, Praha 1997, p. 164.)