This small table was placed before a Buddhist deity in a temple hall and offering goods and ritual implements were then placed upon it. The slender and elegant legs of the table, referred to as heron legs, support the table top (Jpn. tenban). A butterfly motif is rendered in mother of pearl on the surfaces of the sides of the table top, and the outline of the foliate spandrels (kōzama) is also rendered in mother of pearl. 
Object label 

The table-plate of this small black-lacquered table is rectangular and has notched round corners. The four side-panels are decorated with kōzama open-work decoration. The four legs are elegantly made in sagi-ashi (heron leg) style.
The rim of the kōzama open-work, the ends of the legs, and the hassō fittings, which are usually made of gilt-bronze, are decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay. This is one of the most notable aspects of this table. The design of butterflies is inlaid with mother-of-pearl within the frame of each hassō fitting. These butterflies resemble the butterflies of a mother-of pearl inlaid design on the shitan (red sandalwood) quiver which has been kept in Kasuga shrine in Nara and which was made during the Daiji era (1126-1131). Because of this similarity, the table introduced in this article is assumed to have been made during the same period as the quiver of Kasuga shrine.
The black-lacquered table with mother-of-pearl inlaid decoration in Hōryū-ji temple, which is assumed to have been made during the Tennin era (1108-1110), and another table with mother-of-pearl inlaid decoration in Daichōju-in in Chūson-ji temple belong to the same category as this black-lacquered table in the Nara National Museum, although it is much smaller than the other two tables. It is conceivable that this small table was used in a small Buddhist hall such as the jibutsu-dō. 
Masterpieces of Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 1993, p.117, no.91.