We've just put this up to display the netsuke collection, but it could have uses closer to this forum's raison d'etre, as we say in English.
Nice!
Wot e says !
Very nice.
Very good looking and an interesting collection. Until now I had know idea there was such a thing as natsuke. Your posts are often informative.
Was it you or Lee that arranged the collection and does the presentation order have significant?
Nice cabinet ... even nicer contents!
I put them up. Thais are sadly slapdash about their home interiors; only after getting together with me did Lee encounter the idea that a home could be arranged to be more than a base of operations.
They aren't in any special order, though the better pieces are arranged to be more visible. Lee's planning to photograph some in close-up for FB posting; I can put up a few here if you're interested and they don't count as warping the purpose of this forum.
Be careful of this bug. The things are addictive, and frighteningly expensive if you go for good pieces.
I for one have no problem looking at these in more detail, some are miniatures after all. Are "good pieces" obvious to the casual observer or is arcane knowledge required for that determination? One assumes that there are also "bad pieces" floating about but with hefty price tags?
As to home, I am in the "base of operations" faction with every surface used for storage.
You can pretty easily see that the carving is production line standard on some, or that electric tools have clearly been used; but at times the rating is very subjective. One of mine is by a late 20th-century artist, Kogyoku, who himself used four different signatures depending on how good he thought his own work. There are many forgeries with great names on them, but sometimes so good that they'd fetch a high price anyway. There's also a tradition that a master may sign his own name on the work of an apprentice, which is considered a great compliment ("My God, Michelangelo is willing to be associated with my carving!").
The netsuke world is also divided over how far a piece counts if it was never intended to be worn, or if it was produced with a good understanding of Japanese aesthetics but by a foreigner (there's a superb sculptor working in Spain, for example. Nobody would mistake his carvings for 1840s Japanese - they look quite Art Deco, actually - but any enthusiast would have to grant that they met all the requirements: satisfyingly 3-dimensional, visual and tactile at once, and really beautiful).
In other words, the netsuke business is a minefield for the investor, and even experts can be stumped.
Two low-grade pieces. The fishmonger in Japan is like the traditional milkman in Britain - always ready to comfort a bored or neglected housewife. (click on the picture and it'll turn right side up.)
A better quality modern piece (my own opinion). If you want to pick it up, that's a good sign. Applies to a few Japanese women I've met too.
Given the recent ruling in California are you sure the gentleman in the first picture isn't a beekeeper? :)
Bees are fish (https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/california-court-ruling-bees-are-fish-bad-logic-good-humans-rcna32971)
Daruma, the founder of Zen. He lost his limbs through sitting and meditating too long. A "trade" piece, clearly production-line. You can't see it here, but the himetoshi, the holes for the cord, is on top of the head. A better carver would almost certainly have put them at the back.
Architectural carving; possibly the underwater palace of the Dragon King, and thus protected by the clamshell. A low-grade version of a popular subject; better ones are far more complex and finished. And expensive, alas.
Modern and souvenir-grade, but a well-executed one nonetheless. No doubt in California this counts as an armoured butterfly.
A 3-D rebus; two or four babies?
One of our best pieces: a group of theatrical masks. 19th-century. I bought this one with my first unemployment benefits cheque. Andy Capp would be outraged.
A good one. Signed Kogyoku, 2nd grade. The editor of Arts of Asia said he thought it merited a 1st grade ranking. I think the carver was unhappy about the curvature of Benkei's naginata; you have to obey the medium when you sculpt in a more active material (Phil has it easy).
The subject is the meeting of Yoshitsune and Benkei in Kyoto, when the monk tried to mug the young hero but was disarmed with a whack of a fan, and was so impressed that he became Yoshitsune's faithful retainer.
Probably 19th century. Gama Sennin, the holy man with the toad. A popular, frequently humorous, subject carved unusually in walrus tusk, aka marine ivory.
Modern. Near the climax of the story of Kiyohime, a beautiful young woman who fell in love with a flirtatious monk at her father's inn, and pursued him until he took refuge under a temple bell. Another common version shows the ending, when her lust transformed her into a fiery dragon who roasted him in his hiding place. Be careful, gentlemen. Asian women are cute, but not to be trifled with.
The piece is signed on an inset ivory cartouche under the base.
Carved in vegetable ivory (a sort of hard nut). I'm surprised the material isn't more widely used; it's attractive and free of the animal rights concerns of ivory. PETA members might take comfort in knowing that Japanese ivory was usually obtained from mammoth remains in the heyday of netsuke carving.
This chap's name is Urashimi Taro. A sea princess invited him to her father's undersea palace, where he enjoyed a long and happy romance. When he became homesick, the Dragon King gave him a box with instructions to guard it with great care but never to open it. Of course, he yielded to temptation, and the long decades that he had lived as a young and healthy man as the princess' favourite came out of the box as a cloud of smoke, turning him into an old man in seconds.
Interestingly, in western cultures, where these days cats are worshipped and revered, it's an insult to call a woman a cat. In Japan, where cats usually feature as betrayers and destroyers, it's a compliment.
Souvenir piece, but a cute one.
Another low-price but satisfying little piece. Taro's father-in-law?
Two undistinguished pieces. The wooden one is a tengu bird-goblin hatching. They're worth making friends with; Yoshitsune learned his sword technique from them.
A kappa, a frequently malignant water spirit. An obviously mass-produced souvernir piece.
A rather good scrimshaw manju (rice cake) showing a saki vendor. The cord fastens to a stud at the back. The mask is Hanya, whose vanity at her own beauty led to her transformation as punishment by the gods with the same vindictiveness that marks the Olympians.
Not something I was aware of, before.
Thanks for sharing the close-up photos and descriptions, it was hard to make them out in the initial photos.
Indeed, Kitty, thanks for the tour of your collection. A bewildering variety of subjects and materials. I see why you are attracted to them. I particularly like the story-telling behind them.
It's hard to pick a favorite. I suspect it would vary depending on one's mood. For me, at the moment, it's the Gamma Sennin.
Thanks again for taking the time to do this presentation.
All collectors love a chance to show off their treasures. :)
By the way, if you're interested in seeing more, there are excellent collections in the V. and A., the British Museum, The Met, the Fitzwilliam (Cambridge), the Ashmolean (the Other Place), the Jewish Museum in Cape Town (unexpected location, but a staggeringly good display), and also in Paris and Kyoto.
That's a very interesting collection, thanks for sharing!