Okimono
An okimono is a Japanese ornamental carving or small sculpture made to be placed and looked at, the word means roughly a thing put down, and traditionally displayed in the tokonoma, the alcove of a Japanese room. It can be carved in wood or ivory, modelled in ceramic or cast and hammered in metal. Many were made for export to the West from the Meiji period, from 1868.
Definition
The clearest way to define an okimono is against its smaller cousin. A netsuke had a job: it was a toggle, worn at the sash, with holes for a cord. An okimono has none. It is purely decorative, usually larger than a netsuke, and free of the rules that use imposed: it can stand on legs, spread its limbs and carry fine projections that would snap off a netsuke in a day.
In our handling, subjects are those of Japanese art generally: gods of good fortune such as Hotei and Otafuku, Buddhist figures and sages, animals, farmers and fishermen. A frequently cited example is an ivory okimono of a Rakan, a Buddhist holy man, carved between about 1860 and 1900 from a single piece of ivory and 8.7 centimetres high. A distinct subcategory is the jizai okimono, an articulated figure, typically of an animal, made of bronze or iron so that its body and limbs move.
Origin
The tokonoma, the raised alcove of a Japanese reception room, gave the okimono its place, as it gave the hanging scroll its wall. Porcelain okimono were made in the Edo period, such as a nineteenth-century reclining boar in Hirado Mikawachi porcelain with a clear glaze. The great export age came with the Meiji period and after, when many okimono were made for the West, and Meiji metal okimono, among them hammered and articulated iron pieces, are held in collections such as the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art.
For a collector the two eras ask different questions. An Edo piece is read for its use in a Japanese room; a Meiji export piece is read for its finish, its signature and the taste of the buyers it was made for.
Key facts
| Purpose | Display, traditionally in the tokonoma |
|---|---|
| Size | Usually larger than netsuke |
| Materials | Wood, ivory, ceramic, bronze, iron |
| Subcategory | Jizai okimono, articulated metal figures |
| Great period | Meiji, from 1868, much for export |
How to identify it
- No cord holes. An okimono has no himotoshi; a small carving with them is a netsuke.
- The base. In our handling, the underside tells a great deal: a signature, a seal, a fitted wooden stand, or, in some humorous pieces, a hidden scene.
- The material. Ivory and bone, boxwood and other woods, porcelain and cast metal each age differently; read the surface before the subject.
- Movement. For a jizai piece, check that every joint moves and that no plates have been replaced.
- Ceramic pieces. In our handling, a ceramic okimono should be checked for restored chips at the edges of robes and ears, the places a figure meets the shelf or the hand.
Where it appears in the collection
The house keeps these carvings on the okimono and statues shelf. We hold a boxwood okimono of a wild boar sow with her young, a cast-iron Otafuku okimono with a hidden relief beneath and a bronze horse signed Goto Sadayuki. The form is studied in our essay on objects made to be placed and the articulated pieces in our guide to jizai okimono.
Related entries
- Netsuke: the worn toggle.
- Kakejiku: the scroll that shares the tokonoma.
- Shunga: the subject of some hidden scenes.
Sources
- Okimono, encyclopaedia entry. wikipedia.org
Last reviewed 15 November 2026. The Japonista Curation and Concierge Team, Tokyo, Japan.