Bugyotsuji

Quick answer, I hope, yes Colin, all those miniatures I found in Japan. Actually a couple of them I had wanted for many years, always on display at the same stall, but the dealer would not yield on the price and I could not justify the cost. They continued to appeal, however, and I even told some of my collecting friends about them. Imagine my horror when I got back to Japan one autumn and a friend handed them over. "I did a deal with him, and now you can have them for only XYZ!" he said. Although he is a friend, he is not really that close, and I got angry with him. "Never do that again!" I said, "buying stuff without asking me first." I paid him a wedge of cash somewhat reluctantly, but secretly I was quite chuffed; he looked miffed. Today I am happy to have them and there is no pain. I never met Sydney Moss, not consciously, but I became aquainted with Max R through visiting their shop in Mayfair, taken there by collector friends. I sold a coiled ivory dragon there which did exceptionally well. Start collecting again.... ???

Instead of ivory, various other materials have risen in response, though nothing will quite replace it. Other natural ivory includes mammoth and marine ivories which are a legally slightly grey/gray area, and then vegetable ivories. Today those dealers who survived the engineered crash seem to be putting their emphasis on wood, stag antler, etc. Wood can be lovely, but hard to photograph, and the quality of stag antler and carving never quite equals ivory on any level, IMHO. Kokusai ‘school’ antler Netsuke though do very well, mainly (?) thanks to Moss et al.

He seems to praise the blade, mentioning 'a sense of emulating Rai Kunitoshi'.

Does that say it 'has a feeling of gansaku Rai Kunitoshi'? 贋作来国俊 Who performed the sayagaki?

And here are some children’s (?) miniature inro sets. Note decorative use of various precious metals. Matchsticks for size comparison. And opened

A good inro set can be horribly expensive. They were given to the Tokugawa Shōgun, who would in turn give them out to favo(u)red subject Daimyō. Here are three mid-level examples, nothing special, but just for adult size comparison in advance of the miniature ones. One netsuke is a lotus seed pod with rattly seeds, lacquered wood. One is a round ashtray bowl carved from tagua nut, vegetable ivory. On the right is a Shō flute in stag antler. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uAdvJMnlj_8 The black inro contains a leather-faced three-drawer medicine container. (Matchsticks for reference) Opened

10/12-plate suji kabuto? Many of the features are hard to see, as it's all black lacquer. Does it have shiten-no-byo and hibiki-ana in the four directions?

That's interesting! Thanks, I have never seen one written like that before.

Yesterday I was round at Igor’s place and he showed me this wonderful heavy book by Ito on Katana-gaké 刀掛, Sword Racks. https://iidakoendo.com/12729/ One thing that caught my eye was that many old sword stands had a special hook for an inro set, called an 印籠掛inro-gaké. Wealthy early to mid-Edo Bushi would remove their sword(s) and their sagemono set (Inro - netsuke - ojime) to be hung on the same rack! This indicates to me how close and valuable they both were to individuals of the warrior class.

Diameter is definitely weird. Inconsistency in terms also causes confusion, e.g. 'height' versus 'length'.

For the number of nakago mekugi-ana, it looks like 半 'half' but...are we seeing an old kanji for one? 壱 or 壹 perhaps???

Aside from the dropped-and-broken aspect to fired clay netsuke, Richard Silverman amassed a huge collection, cornering the market, which surely increased the rarity of these. Now Colin, perhaps you can better understand my simple joy at spotting that oblong haizara ashtray netsuke some posts above. I still remember the day too when that green Daruma figure appeared on the horizon! By the same token, although rare as hen's teeth, they will never really break the bank.

Perfect, Pietro! Many thanks.

Please feel free to add comments or examples, and we can go from there. In the meantime I will be mulling over a different angle, such as miniature inro (sagemono) sets, or metal Netsuke, i.e. something just a little different.

And finally (for me) a later pottery mask by a well-known maker whose name escapes me. (Need to go back and find those notes.) These fun (upside down) ‘Onko’ Netsuke masks with similarly-glazed eyes can still be found today in various iterations, produced possibly between WWI and WWII. Seal on reverse

Finely carved Yixing-feel smooth brown clay mushrooms. Topside

This is a very old Kyoto fired pottery Netsuke possibly around the time of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which was broken at some point and lovingly restored with kintsugi. I wrote an article for Euronetsuké a few years back, after discovering that AFE is an old Portuguese word for AVE, faith, likely before the beginning of the banning and persecution of Christians. Naive view of the West? On the back is a water dragon. New World - Old World?

Continuing the ceramic theme this is my version of the Kyoto Daruma shown in the catalog posted earlier, maybe even cast from the same mold(?). And the himotōshi holes.

This first is one of the seven gods of wealth and good fortune, Daikoku-Ten or Daikoku, with his magic hammer. A crude but genuine still-intact Edo-period Netsuke. View of Uchide-no-Kozuchi hammer

Thinking now that I might just clear out this ceramic Netsuke angle by posting a couple more that I found at home recently. Watch this space. In the meantime, Pietro has kindly contacted me and pointed out this excellent visual link to the book on the above-mentioned Silverman collection. Thank you! https://archive.org/details/adornmentinclayc00laur He has also included a link to FaceBook where former collectors from the International Netsuke Society's virtually defunct internet forum now gather. Since I became allergic to F/B many years ago I am missing out by not visiting there. If anyone Facebook-oriented is interested in a serious scholarly group though, please visit there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/netsukes

You are right to ask this question, Alexander. May I counter with why you wish to buy over internet auction images? Personally I find myself drawn more to parts of the second example, even if it is not composite.

OK, those are great. Thanks Mike. The pan lid (hinged cover) and pin are non-standard but I guess they would perform the role just fine. Nice fluted barrel. I’m thinking somewhere geographically non-mainstream, but without my reference books here I cannot yet pin it down in my mind.

There’s a Japanese expression, ‘Oni ni kanabō’ 鬼に鉄棒 Giving a metal club to an ogre means further enabling someone already fearful.

松竹梅 Shō-Chiku-Bai, the three symbolizing New Year. (Not sure where they got ‘Masa’ from!) Different museum staff recording at different times. Dale, you could be hired and passed around from institution to institution!

Hi Shaun, the scene looks more Japanese than Chinese. Is there a signature at the bottom right? PS Where are those photos stored? There are several easy ways to downsize photos, including using the menu inside your phone camera.