Netsuke
Overview
Having no pockets in their traditional kimono dress, the Japanese, beginning in the 17th century, developed a miniature sculptural form called a netsuke (pronouced net-ski in the west, but closer to netskeh in Japanese) to function as a toggle securing personal items to their robe’s sash (called an obi).
Netsuke are mostly a feature of Japanese male culture. Women would tuck small personal items into their sleeves, but men suspended their accesories on a silk cord, from their obi. These hanging objects are called sagemono. A sliding bead called the ojime was strung on the cord between the netsuke and the sagemono to tighten or loosen the opening of the sagemono. The best known accessory was the inro, a small box used by the wealthy for carrying medicines and seals. Netsuke were also used to secure purses, and were widely used to hold the tobacco pouches that became almost universal with the introduction of smoking in Japan.
All three objects, the netsuke, the ojime and the different types of sagemono were often beautifully decorated with elaborate carving, lacquer work, or inlays of rare and exotic materials, including: wood, ivory, precious metals, shell, coral and semi-precious stones.
Materials
The most common materials used by the Netsukeshi (netsuke carvers) were wood and ivory. Only those artists located in Osaka/Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) had access to ivory and their ivory netsuke accounts for about half of those surviving today. Netsukeshi in more rural areas most often used box or cherry wood, which they stained and polished, but nearly every material imaginable was used, including bone, whale (marine ivory), boar’s tusk or teeth, amber and stag antler.
Types
There are five major types or styles of netsuke, the most common being the katabori or figural netsuke. Sashi or long, thin netsuke, were thrust through the obi, with the sagemono suspended from the end that protrudes below. Manju netsuke are named after a popular bean paste confection that came in a round, flat shape. Kagamibuta (literally, “mirror lid”) are a special type of netsuke comprising a metal lid and a bowl, usually in wood or ivory. Finally, there are mask netsuke, which are miniature versions of the masks used in Noh and Kyogen plays.
In general, one’s social and economic class could be determined by the quality of one’s netsuke with the highest class wearing examples of the finest materials and carving and lower classes using more ordinary materials with rudimentary or little carving.
Terminology
In addition to the terms defined above, the Japanese used a number of other specialized terms in describing netsuke, including:
Bakemono A goblin or monster in human form having legs and in this way are distinguished from ghosts, which have none.
Himotoshi The apertures and channel carved in netsuke and inro for the passage of a cord.
Kiseruzutsu A pipecase.
Makie A general category of techniques in which designs are created by sprinkling gold and other materials on lacquer. Its literal meaning is sprinkled picture.
Tonkotsu A tobacco box form of sagemono.
Yatate A portable writing set, accommodating both a brush and the necessary writing ink. Another item in the sagemono category, since it was usually carried hanging from the obi.