EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

The baku is said to be an amalgam of features drawn from real animals: an elephant's trunk, the eyes of a sai [a mythical beast similar to the rhinoceros], tiger's feet, and an ox's tail. Baku devoured bad dreams, and were therefore sometimes depicted on the sides of lacquered pillows made as part of formal wedding gift sets.1

1Joe Earle, Netsuke: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Miniature Sculpture, (Boston, 2001), p.119, fig.83