AN IVORY NETSUKE

SIGNED HIDEKAZU, EDO PERIOD (EARLY 19TH CENTURY)

Details

AN IVORY NETSUKE
Signed Hidekazu, Edo Period (Early 19th Century)
Of Nitta no Shiro riding backwards on a wild boar, his quiver on his back, grasping its tail in his left hand and preparing to despatch it with a knife held in his right hand, katabori, ivory with dark staining; fine hairwork; the boar's eyes inlaid in dark horn, signed underneath in a leaf-shaped reserve Hidekazu (also read Shuichi; the character kazu cut away by the himotoshi), small repair
1.5/8in. (4.1cm.) long

Lot Essay

Nitta no Shiro (also called Tadatsune, 1168?-1203) is best known for an incident in 1193 related in Chapter 8 of the Soga monogatari [Tale of the Soga Brothers]. After he had killed Soga Sukenari, the elder of the two brothers, Nitta rode backwards on a wild boar and slew it in the presence of the brothers' deadly enemy Minamoto no Yoritomo. The boar turned out to be a mountain kami [local deity] which put a curse on Nitta so that Yoritomo began to suspect him of disloyalty. He was eventually killed in 12031.

1 Osumi Kazuo et. al. (ed.), Nihon kaku densho jinmei jiten [Dictionary of Imaginary and Traditional Personalities] (Tokyo, 1986), pp. 368-9

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