Lot Essay
Another description of the figure is that the small man carries on his conscience the burden of a ghost. The netsuke is carved so that the figures balance remarkably on the man's small feet.
Details
MAN AND BAKEMONO
Wood, the bakemono with movable head, signed Ikko
Late 18th Century
2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm.) high
Wood, the bakemono with movable head, signed Ikko
Late 18th Century
2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm.) high
Literature
George Lazarnick, Netsuke and Inro Artists, Reed Publishers, Honolulu, 1982, p. 511 with a copy of a catalogue note explaining the bakemono as mikoshi nyudo or o-nyudo terrorizing a dwarfed figure of a man, the zig-zag pattern on the cloak of the bakemono symbolizing lightning [See Meinertzhagen card index, p. 220]