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When wearing traditional dress, Japanese men and women carried
their small personal possessions by attaching them to a cord which
was tucked into a belt or sash (obi) and held in place
by a carved toggle, or netsuke. The earliest netsuke
were natural materials, such as shells, pieces of wood or bamboo,
and stones. Later netsuke were art objects, beautifully
carved in a range of materials. The earliest known netsuke
are from the eighteenth century but they were probably used earlier
than this.
Carvings on netsuke cover a wide range of subjects, both
real and imaginary, but their content is often humorous with a strong
element of caricature. This is an ivory tengu (a long-nosed
demon) figure, with his nose caught in a clamshell. Representations
of theatre masks are also a common theme.
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database record 1980.34.1848
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