WOLF PAWING THE SEVERED HEAD OF A WOMAN

细节

WOLF PAWING THE SEVERED HEAD OF A WOMAN

Marine ivory, signed Tomomasa

Mid 19th Century

2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm.) high

来源

A similar ivory netsuke signed Tomonobu is listed in the M.T. Hindson catalogue no. 436, with a note explaining that the netsuke illustrates the practice of leaving bodies of executed criminals on the ground for animals to eat. Mr. Bushell offers the opinion that severed heads were not actually left for animals, rather that the image symbolized the fear of the traveller dying far from home without family to bury him properly.

出版

Raymond Bushell, Netsuke Familiar and Unfamiliar, Weatherhill, New York, 1975, plate 423