Ryukyu Islands 2-Tray Coffee Table

Rare table from the Ryukyu Islands (great south of Japan) entirely and finely inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The upper plate is richly decorated and represents figures walking on a boat under pines and weeping willows on a black-brown lacquer base. The lower plate represents birds perched on a branch or in flight among an abundant floral decoration.
The table is almost entirely covered with mother-of-pearl inlays in different color iridescence.
Slit visible on photos. Period: Edo: late 18th early 19th century

Not having a lacquer tree until the beginning of the 19th century, the Ryukyu Islands used what the sea offered them, that is to say the shells in abundance, hence the term Ryukyuan lacquer for the use of inlaid mother-of-pearl on a black or red lacquer background.