Shunga Netsuke after the Hana no Nishiki Handscroll, Entwined Lovers with Flowing Hair, Mammoth Tusk
Shunga Netsuke after the Hana no Nishiki Handscroll, Entwined Lovers with Flowing Hair, 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 $487, 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
- Resplendent 8.5 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
| Figure | cm | in |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 4.1 cm | 1.6 in |
| Height | 3.6 cm | 1.4 in |
| Depth | 3.0 cm | 1.2 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
Hair Let Down
A true netsuke form, closed and rounded, with the image hidden inside the shape. One discovers the subject only by turning it, which is how shunga netsuke were always meant to be met.
Best for: Collectors of compact katabori netsuke and Rinpa-inspired design
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.
Examined in Tokyo, one price, insured to your door. How buying from Japonista works · Join the Circle, free
A second study presented as taken from the Hana no Nishiki handscroll associated with Korin: two lovers wound into a single compact form, her unbound hair pouring over both of them.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
The carver has solved the netsuke maker's oldest problem, how to make a complicated subject smooth enough to sit against a sash, by knotting the two bodies into an almost spherical mass. Arms cross arms, a knee rises, and a long fall of inked hair runs down the front like a brushstroke. There are no fragile projections anywhere.
The robe on the reverse is engraved with roundel crests and trailing wisteria in violet and red over a red-lined cushion, and the base shows a large floral roundel beside the red seal signature.
Iconography and Meaning
Loosened hair is one of the strongest signs in Japanese art: a woman's hair was dressed, oiled and pinned in public, so hair let down belongs only to the bath and the bedchamber. Wisteria, which hangs and clings, has been a poetic figure for attachment since the Tale of Genji.
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: Entwined lovers, the woman with unbound hair
- Material: Woolly mammoth tusk
- Technique: Hand carving, staining and ink engraving
- Colour: Ivory white with violet, red and black
- Length: 41 mm (1.6 in)
- Width: 30 mm (1.2 in)
- Height: 36 mm (1.4 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.
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