Busacca Gallery

A rare netsuke, beautifully carved in fine grained hard wood with a vary old patina. (19th century) Of a tree stump, details finely rendered. Carved wooden netsuke of a stump. Concave on the top. About 80 percent of surviving antique netsuke were carved in various types of native Japanese wood—cypress, cherry, black persimmon, yew, camphor, zelkova, and camellia. Unsigned. Condition: Very nicely hand carved sculpture. ¾"T x 1-¾"W From the Dr. Campbell Asian Collection. The best rare netsuke are sought after and collected from around the world. Early netsuke were usually quite plain and functional pieces of wood or stone. However, by the eighteenth century they were very often finely carved ornaments, a show of the owner's wealth. Though most netsuke were less than five centimetres high, they were carved with extraordinary detail: Carvers drew on varied themes for these accessories—nature, mythical tales and historical figures. Given that netsuke were small and easily concealed, portrayals of ribald themes or satirical iconography could easily be hidden from the Tokugawa military authorities, thereby providing the townspeople with a whimsical and in some cases subversive outlet from officially sanctioned Neo-Confucian cultural norms prevailing during these times. From the seventeenth through mid-nineteenth centuries, Japanese citizens of all classes wore the kimono—a simple T-shaped robe constructed with minimal cutting and tailoring—wrapped around the body and held in place with an obi sash. In order to carry small items such as tobacco, medicine, and seals, ingeniously constructed sagemono (a collective term for "hanging things") were suspended on cords that hung from the obi sash. Stacked, nested containers, known as inrô, were specifically designed to hold medicine or seals. Netsuke served as anchors or counterweights for inrô and sagemono. A single cord was threaded through a cord channel on one side of the suspended container, through two holes (himotoshi) in the netsuke, then through the other side of the container, and knotted on the underside of the container. A decorative bead, or ojime, slid along the cord between the netsuke and sagemono, allowing the user to open and close the container. The wearer would slip the netsuke under and dangle it over the obi sash, allowing the sagemono to hang suspended between waist and hip. In order to access the contents of the sagemono, the wearer slipped thenetsuke behind the obi sash, liberating the ensemble. By sliding the ojimetoward the netsuke, the contents of the container were easily accessible. *Our job is to find and target great art by collecting a vast array of contemporary, vintage, antique and collectible items from across the globe. Individually handcrafted, we breathe new life into these forgotten relics by giving back each piece it's unique story. We welcome dealers, galleries, and private collectors to register securely and buy with us.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke

Netsuke, are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function (the two Japanese characters ne+tsuke mean "root" and "to attach"). Traditional Japanese garments—robes called kosode and kimono—had no pockets; however, men who wore them needed a place to store their personal belongings, such as pipes, tobacco, money, seals, or medicines.



Their solution was to place such objects in containers (called sagemono) hung by cords from the robes' sashes (obi). The containers may have been pouches or small woven baskets, but the most popular were beautifully crafted boxes (inrō), which were held shut by ojime, which were sliding beads on cords. Whatever the form of the container, the fastener that secured the cord at the top of the sash was a carved, button-like toggle called a netsuke.