No idea what this is?

Thank goodness. You spared me suggesting it was something to do with betel nuts. Looks like it did tuck into an obi like an inro?

 

Don't disagree with the approach, but two things bothered me from the get go about the 'short leash'... 1) there's a splinter inside the grove as if the hole was added later for convenience, i.e., not original to piece, and 2) the braided string looks newer than the rest. It coulda be restrung.

even so, say the piece was repurposed just for tea, and not a tea ceremony. Disconnect the 'tea' from the top, put the container on the table, dip in the spoon, while holding the top inside the palm of your hand.

Did I say 'tea' - I meant tobacco. or was it 'herbs' ... point is, it's still in the guessing stage. or not. Have no idea what a inro is.

 

Something for carrying your necessaries when you are wearing a garment that doesn't have pockets but does have a big sash.

 

You need a netsuke to wear one.

 

I found a number of similar items using the search terms "kiseruzutsu tobacco box"
Kudos to 2manybooks!
Also note that the very first post stated it was found with tobacco-related items....

 

& that's that....nice find !

 

We were dancing around it.

 

It looked Japanese to me, so I googled "antique Japanese pipe accessories". Voila!

 

The parable of the blind men and an elephant springs to mind.

 

That captures it pretty well, doesn't it?

 

Naahh...we hashed it out.....everyone adding and subtracting....until the whole becomes greater than the sum of it's parts......

maybe it's time to revisit Micstuffs weird item ?

 

it's his avatar......