SIGNED GYOKUZAN, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Details

A GOOD IVORY OKIMONO [sculptural ornament]
SIGNED GYOKUZAN, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)
The pale ivory okimono depicting a strand of land by a river, with small waves breaking on two sides, supported on three legs carved as logs of wood driven into the river to prevent erosion, on the bank are two men, one of them, holding a fishing rod with a cloth in his hand and reacting to the sight of a kappa emerging from the river beside his line, the other man kneeling beside him, the details inlaid in dark wood, signed Gyokuzan, engraved in red on an inlaid dark wood rectangular wooden tablet on the underside of the base
7.8cm. high

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

Kappa are mythical goblins who live in holes in river banks and tend to spring out and play magical pranks on passers by. They have the body of a tortoise, the legs of a frog and, usually, the head of a monkey. They have an unpleasant tendancy to attack and devour human beings - but there is a remedy, to prevent this. The kappa is a very polite beast. It has a depression in the top of its skull which it must keep full of water, or it loses its magical power until it can get back into the water. On meeting a kappa, the best course is to bow deeply, upon which the kappa, a polite creature bows back, thus spilling its fluid and with it its magical power.

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