Risque Netsuke of a Laughing Tengu Mask Embraced by Otafuku, Mammoth Tusk
Risque Netsuke of a Laughing Tengu Mask Embraced by Otafuku, Mammoth Tusk
- 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 $118, 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 7 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
| Figure | cm | in |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 3.7 cm | 1.5 in |
| Height | 4.4 cm | 1.7 in |
| Depth | 2.5 cm | 1.0 in |
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
Festival Humour
Folk religion, theatre and comedy in one small object. Its meaning is cheerful, not coarse.
Best for: Collectors of mask netsuke, tengu and festival folk art
Condition notes
No conspicuous marks recorded. Staining and ink engraving are bright, and the polish is even.
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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All sales are final. Please read our refund policy before purchase.
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 long-nosed tengu mask with rolling eyes, and beside it Otafuku in a red skirt, hugging the famous nose with a look of delight.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
The mask is carved hollow like a real one, with a grey beard and black-ringed eyes, and it forms a curved shell behind which the little figure stands. She is bare to the waist, round-cheeked and smiling, her hair inked black and her wrap stained vermilion. Seen from underneath the composition is frankly erotic.
Cord holes are drilled in the back of the mask beside a small engraved mark.
Iconography and Meaning
The tengu's nose and Otafuku's laughter are paired at shrine festivals across Japan as male and female emblems of fertility, an innocent bawdiness as old as the myth of Ame-no-Uzume dancing before the cave. The pairing is a wish for children and a good harvest.
Netsuke were the first Japanese objects that the collectors of nineteenth-century Paris and London fell in love with: the Goncourt brothers, Siegfried Bing and the circle around the Impressionists kept them in their pockets and wrote of them as sculpture complete in miniature. That first wave of Japonisme has never really ended, and a carving of this quality shows why.
Details
- Type: Katabori netsuke, carved in the round
- Subject: Tengu mask with Otafuku
- Material: Woolly mammoth tusk
- Technique: Hand carving, staining and ink engraving
- Colour: Ivory white with vermilion, grey and black
- Length: 37 mm (1.5 in)
- Width: 25 mm (1.0 in)
- Height: 44 mm (1.7 in)
- Period: Contemporary, in the classical tradition
- Made in: Japan
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 1 to 2 mm.
Condition
- No conspicuous marks, chips or repairs are noted.
- Staining and ink engraving are bright, and the polish is even.
- Every photograph is part of the description.
Condition grade A (excellent) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Carved by hand in Japan from the tusk of the woolly mammoth, an extinct species whose fossil tusk is not elephant ivory and is not listed under CITES. It is a contemporary work in the classical tradition, examined and photographed in Japan before dispatch. Rules on mammoth tusk differ between countries and, in the United States, between states; please confirm that it may be received at your address before you buy. Keep away from direct sun, dry heat and sudden changes of humidity, and handle with clean dry hands.
Delivery from Japan
Wrapped by hand in Japan in soft tissue and a rigid case, and 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. Further pieces of the kind are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts and in the wider room of Netsuke, Sagemono and Inro.
Concierge
Looking for a particular subject, carver or companion piece? Our Hunting Salon™ locates it across Japan's private collector circles, then inspects, documents and delivers it to you. Begin a Hunting Salon™ request.
Collectors also search: risque netsuke, tengu mask and otafuku · mammoth tusk netsuke from Japan · tengu netsuke
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