Cast Iron Otafuku Okimono with Hidden Base Relief, Seated Goddess of Good Fortune, Signed Wooden Box
Cast Iron Otafuku Okimono with Hidden Base Relief, Seated Goddess of Good Fortune, Signed Wooden Box
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- United States · usually 4–7 days after dispatch, insured and tracked Check the Shipping Flowchart here
- Import
Duties and customs · View the estimate
A guide for this piece: about $29, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
The final figure is set by US Customs and depends on where the piece was made and the kind of object it is. Many antiques over a century old carry no ordinary duty; most jewellery and leather goods add a single-digit rate.
With EMS, any charge is collected by your postal service on delivery. For pieces of significant value we can often arrange duties prepaid before dispatch.
How the estimate is reached · Ask for a figure on this piece
- Character
- Ornate 6.8 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
Every piece is measured by hand, in centimetres as Japan measures. Please allow 1–2 cm (about ½ inch) for the give of the material and the hand that held the tape.
Where each figure is taken · View the plate
Object, sculpture and ceramics
Condition report
Excellent
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
Fortune Laughs Last
Otafuku smiles out from under her hood with round cheeks and a fan in hand, the very picture of household luck. Lift her, and the base delivers the punchline: the old Japanese conviction that laughter, fertility and good fortune all come from the same place.
Best for: Collectors of erotic okimono and Japanese good-luck figures
Condition notes
Described as free of damage. The gold-toned surface shows natural variation in the patina; wooden box retained.
Grades, ratings and commentary are given to the best of our ability, knowledge and experience, and condition remains partly a matter of personal perception. What we stand behind without qualification is authenticity, truthful description and provenance, to the best of our knowledge. How we grade
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Considered offers only. The Desk replies personally to figures made in good faith; those set far below the asking price receive no reply.
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A weighty cast iron Otafuku, seated and beaming, who keeps a private joke beneath her base.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
Otafuku, also called Okame, is the round-cheeked, smiling woman of Japanese folk belief: a bringer of good fortune, merriment and plenty, whose face appears on festival masks and New Year charms. Here she kneels in a hooded robe, a folding fan held to her chest and her other hand raised in welcome, the inscription on her box naming her as a figure that invites good fortune.
Turn her over and the joke is revealed. The base is cast with a frank anatomical relief, the hidden-picture humour of warai, laughter, that runs through shunga and the erotic charms once kept for fertility and luck. It is a thoroughly earthy piece, and a thoroughly Japanese one: blessing and bawdiness sharing a single figure.
The iron carries a gold-toned patina deepening to bronze in the folds. The fitted wooden box is inscribed in brush with her name on one side and a comic verse playing on the shapes of two kana letters on the other, signed Fuji no Haha with a red seal.
Details
- Subject: Otafuku (Okame), goddess of good fortune
- Form: Okimono, display figure
- Material: Cast iron with a gold-toned patina
- Hidden feature: Erotic relief cast on the base
- Height: About 23 cm (9.1 in)
- Base: About 19 x 19 cm (7.5 x 7.5 in)
- Weight: About 4.78 kg (10.5 lb)
- Box: Fitted wooden box, inscribed and signed Fuji no Haha
- Made in: Japan
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 0.5 cm (0.2 in).
Condition
- Described as free of damage.
- Natural variation in the patina; box retained.
Condition grade A (excellent) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Offered as a cast iron okimono with its inscribed box; the signature on the box is given as read and the figure is undated. Dust with a soft dry cloth and keep away from damp.
Delivery from Japan
The figure is wrapped, boxed and packed in a double-walled carton, shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
Considered offers are welcome through Send an Offer, and each one is reviewed personally. Kindred pieces are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts and in Japanese Okimono, Figurines and Statues.
Concierge
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Collectors also search: Otafuku okimono · erotic cast iron figure · Japanese good luck charm
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