A WOOD NETSUKE

UNSIGNED (ATTRIBUTED TO TOKOKU OF EDO/TOKYO), EDO/MEIJI PERIOD (MID-LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Details

A WOOD NETSUKE
Unsigned (attributed to Tokoku of Edo/Tokyo), Edo/Meiji Period (Mid-Late 19th Century)
Of a seated fox in priest's robes, staring straight ahead with its mouth open as if chanting a sutra, katabori, wood with black and brown staining and ivory details; pupils in horn
1in. (3.8cm.) high

Provenance

Dawson Collection

Literature

Egerton Ryerson, The Netsuke of Japan: Legends, History, Folklore and Customs (London, 1958), pl. 23, no. 5
Eskenazi Limited, Japanese Netsuke, Ojime and Inro from the Dawson Collection (London, 1997), cat. no. 23

Sale room notice

There is a slight chip to the ear.

Lot Essay

Tokoku (1846-1913) lived in Tokyo and was specially noted for his intricately carved and inlaid netsuke1. This netsuke depicts Hakuzosu, an Eitoku-period (1381-4) priest. He worshipped the rice-deity Inaba and kept three foxes whose spirits warded off robbers and foretold good and bad fortune. The story was made into a kyogen [a comic interlude between No performances] called Tsurigitsune [The Fishing Fox] where an old fox transforms himself into the priest and persuades him to stop trying to catch foxes. On its return home, however, the old fox is trapped by some bait in the usual way.

1 Frederick Meinertzhagen, MCI, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke (George Lazarnick ed.; New York, 1986), vol. 2, pp. 870-1; Raymond Bushell (ed.), The Netsuke Handbook of Ueda Reikichi (First published as Ueda Reikichi, Netsuke no kenkyu [A Study of Netsuke], Osaka, 1943; Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, 1961), p. 300 (no. 1184); E.A. Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists (Harehope, Northumberland, 1995), pp. 294-5.

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