This piece combines an antique Japanese Tansu chest from the 1910’s and the original patent illustration of the standard shipping container used in the global containerized shipping industry, which is painted by hand over the front. The intended functions of both designs are the same: storage and transport. When you open the doors of the tansu, the drawers (kimono trays) are painted to look like the horizon over an open ocean.

Not only is this work about the commonality of design and function, it is a reference to the long and intricate histories between Japan and the west regarding trade, specifically the events leading up to the forceful signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa (1854). This event marked the end of Japan’s policy forbidding commerce with foreign nations.

Tansu (箪笥) are traditional portable storage chests that were intended as mobile cabinetry, and used to store objects of daily use or inventory. In addition to domestic use, tansu were used in storehouses and on merchant ships. Mobility of tansu was obtained through the use of attached wheels, iron carry handles or protruding structural upper rails for lifting. This bears similarity to the interlocking corner bolts on modern day shipping containers which allow gantry cranes to lift the containers and stack in uniformity.

The shipping container is arguably one of the most impactful inventions and developments to modern life. Ninety percent of all goods and materials are transported via shipping container at least once before reaching the consumer. Without the shipping container and the global shipping industry, the globalized economy we operate within would not exist.