18 
House & Garden 
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Ivory netsuke by 
Hoichi, depicting 
T aiko Hideyoski, 
begging for Masa- 
katsu’s sword. \9th 
Century 
A group of netsuke especially re¬ 
markable for their minute and 
ingenious carving. From the 
Sage Collection in the Metro¬ 
politan Museum of Art 
Carved ivory net¬ 
suke by Hisanori. 
showing the wind 
god carrying the 
thunder god on his 
shoulders 
COLLECTING the NETSUKE of NIPPON 
The Folk-lore and Esthetic Interest Preserved by Japanese 
Artists in these Miniature Objects 
GARDNER TEALL 
Photographs by Jessie Tarbox Beals, Inc., and by Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 
W E were dining with a gentleman recent¬ 
ly returned from a long sojourn in 
Japan. He had delighted us with narration 
and with anecdote, and by him we found our¬ 
selves being initiated into many of the mys¬ 
teries of Japanese customs. 
Our host was keenly interested in the sub¬ 
ject of folk-lore. He impressed us with the 
fact that the nation’s history is like a fabric 
embroidered with legend, and these oft-told 
stories are known to the Japanese of every 
class, imbibed, as it were, from earliest child¬ 
hood. 
“You shall see my repository of Japanese 
stories,” said he, leading us to his library. 
There arranged in a little cabinet of glass 
shelves we were shown a myriad of tiny carv¬ 
ings of wood, ivory, bone, lacquer and even 
other materials lending themselves to the carv¬ 
er’s skill, including jade and crystal. Taking 
one from its place he handed it to us for our 
inspection. 
How Netsuke Are Made and Used 
“These are my netsuke,” our host explained, 
“and presently you will see that they are my 
Japanese story-book, too. As you know, the 
netsuke is a device on the order of a toggle 
which the Japanese attached to the end of the 
cord from which was suspended the inro, a 
little box-like receptacle for carrying seals, 
medicines, etc., or the tobacco-pouch, or the 
pipe case, the netsuke slipping under the belt, 
thus securely holding the inro, tobacco-pouch, 
or pipe case. Wood, ivory, metal, lacquer, 
jade, crystal, stag-horn, vegetable ivory, sea- 
pine, boar-tusk, walrus-tusk, animal teeth, fish¬ 
bone, porcelain, amber, coral and even the red 
growth found at the top of a crane’s head are 
some of the materials the wonderful Japanese 
carvers used for netsuke. 
“The earliest netsuke were of wood. Ivory 
was little used until the 18th Century, for not 
until then was much of this material im¬ 
ported by the Japanese. The core of the cherry 
tree was a favorite wood for the netsuke carver 
to work in, and time lent it a lovely soft patina. 
“The netsuke you are looking at is ivory. 
Ivory netsuke are almost invariably inferior 
to those of wood, but I want to tell you the 
story this one suggests. You will notice there 
In the first netsuke by Ichijo, you see Youth trying to seize Time by the forelock, for Fukurokujui, the old man, is the god of Longevity. In the 
second a peddler leans contentedly and somewhat breathless against his pack. The third represents a boy playing “Kubi-Kubi,” or neck-pulling 
with Fukurokujui, and the last, by Kasa Ow shows Darma, the Buddhist sage who cut off his eyelids as a penance for having fallen asleep during a 
nine-year meditation 
