SIGNED ... GETSU (EDO), EDO PERIOD (EARLY-MID 18TH CENTURY)

Details

A Wood Netsuke
Signed ... getsu (Edo), Edo Period (Early-Mid 18th Century)
Katabori, stained boxwood; a figure of Tekkai Sennin, his crutch at his left side, his right hand on the handle and his left hand holding the shaft, dressed in a mugwort shawl and skirt with a double gourd tied to his right side, his head turned upwards almost ninety degrees as he exhales his soul (not shown), the himotoshi formed by a hole drilled upwards through the base of the skirt connecting with another in the back just below the girdle, signed on the skirt below the gourd with two incised and stained characters, the second character reading getsu, the first character undeciphered, old wear and slight damage
3¾ xin. (9.5 x 2.4cm.)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Although the first character of the signature is not fully legible, this fine early figure is clearly the work of an artist associated with Hara Shugetsu, a peripatetic doll-maker and netsuke-carver who worked in both Osaka and Edo.1

1 Patrizia Jirka-Schmitz, Netsuke: 112 Meisterwerke: The Trumpf Collection (Stuttgart, 2000), p. 43; Inaba Tsuryu Shin'emon, Soken kisho [Strange and wonderful sword-fittings], vol. 7, Furoku netsuke-shi meifu narabi ni zu [Supplement with illustrations and a list of netsuke artists] (Osaka, 1781), p. 10, verso

More from JAPANESE ART AND DESIGN

View All