As well as updating the site to take over from the defunct wikispace site (see earlier post), I have added the latest additions to the collection. There are still some 'miscellaneous' items that are not netsuke, ojime or inro, but it may take me some time to finish adding them all.
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Anyone who has tried to visit our wikispaces sites (for netsuke or woodblock prints) will have noticed that they have closed down. This is because wikispaces is now only aimed at schools, what they call their 'core market'. We will keep our weebly sites as our main web sites.
I have been working to update this site to contain all the information that was on the closed site. It is not quite there; there are some dead links to the old prints site that cannot be updated until I update our current Japanese prints site. I will post again when I have made more progress. It has been some time since the last post. I have added three netsuke and an inro to the catalogue.
Two of the netsuke are of South Sea Islanders [N112] and [N113]. Historically, Japan did not have a very positive view of South Sea Islanders, regarding them like "barbarians" in need of (Japanese) civilisation. These islands were however important to the Japanese Empire as a source of coral and as a strategic trading route to China. We have just bought this inrô. It shows a boy throwing beans at an oni. We have several netsuke [N004], [N028] and [N082] that show this Japanese custom associated with the spring festival Setsubun is mame-maki, in which beans are thrown to banish evil spirits (such as oni). A masu—wooden measuring cup—is filled with roasted soybeans, which are scattered about the room to shouts of Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! [鬼は外!福は内!] 'Oni out! Blessings in!' The oni is very subtly drawn in brown-black matt lacquer on the shiny black back of the inrô. The beans are tiny spots of silver. The inrô is by the Kajikawa family in the 19th C.
There are six resin netsuke on this site, and in an earlier blog, I said I would explain why I bothered to put them in the catalogue. You can find them by searching for material = 'resin'; they are N052, N053, N054, N055, N056 and N057. We have them in the collection because occasionally they are included in an auction lot with netsuke, ojime or inrô that we really want. They provide a useful reference for imitation netsuke of varying quality to help distinguish plastic from ivory. Both ivory and bone fluoresce under ultraviolet light, but plastics do not. We are not sure yet about this inrô. We bought it at an auction on line, and it has not arrived yet. I will post more details when I know more. We now have the inrô, and are very pleased with it. There are some minor defects, but they add to the used look of the piece. I will add it to the catalogue soon. This is probably my favorite ojime, my "Hare with amber eyes." It reminds me of Edmund de Waal's book (The Hare with Amber Eyes) about his family, the Ephrussi, who were once very wealthy European Jewish bankers in Odessa, Vienna and Paris. They lost almost everything under the Nazis in 1938, but a collection of 264 netsuke was saved, tucked away inside her mattress by Anna, a loyal maid. Edmund de Waal is also a famous potter; his web site shows his ceramics, and under "Writing" there is a gallery showing some of the netsuke. My ojime hare does not have amber eyes; they are probably coral. However the eponymous hare with amber eyes actually has amber-coloured eyes, made of horn. We have a new inro, gilded bronze with the remnants of seal paste (red ink based on cinnabar or mercury II sulphide), and two netsuke with some ojime. One netsuke and various beads and ojime are attached to the inro. The netsuke is made from the mother of pearl from of shells, joined with something like pitch. The other is a very bad plastic reproduction. It is so bad that it was obvious from the auction room's photograph. I will write a blog entry about the resin netsuke in the collection and why we have put them into the catalogue some time. I have made separate images (below) of the plastic netsuke and the nice inro and mother-of-pearl netsuke from the auction catalogue image. I will photograph and describe them in our catalogue when I have time. I am working hard on updating the Japanese prints websites at present.
The five netsuke shown in my previous post have now been added to the catalogue [N100], [N101], [N102], [N103] and [N104]. I realise that there were six pictures in the last post, but I have decided that the last one (the seal with the ring) is not actually a netsuke, so I will add it to the miscellaneous category when I have time.
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AuthorI have been collecting netsuke and Japanese prints for several years, and hope that by sharing the colelctions, others might share the enjoyment. Archives
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