UNSIGNED (EDO/TOKYO), EDO/MEIJI PERIOD (MID/LATE 19TH CENTURY)

An outsize okimono netsuke by Masatoshi of Tokyo, in a very similar pose and of similar date but with ordinary wrestlers instead of Shoki and an oni, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (11.23729). The pose refers to a classic bout between Kawazu and Matano that took place in 1176. Matano was about to lift Kawazu by his loincloth and throw him, but Kawazu outwitted him with a combined neck grip and leg trip, a move still known as kawazugake. The basic design of this group is shown in a set of netsuke designs by Katushika Hokusai's pupil Isai (in the style of Hokusai's Manga), published in Kacho sansui zushiki (1847-65, reprinted in 1881).¹

1 Joe Earle, Netsuke: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Miniature Sculpture (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2001), cat. no. 163.