Netsuke with Ivory Capsule

Netsuke with Ivory Capsule is held by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Museum description: The netsuke features an ivory capsule and bowl. On the iron plate, a water lily, a turtle, and a frog appear in partially openwork relief with some gold-damascened decorations and copper inlays.

Together with another piece in the Karlsruhe collection (Inv. No. A 8713), this netsuke belongs to the type of so-called »kagamibuta-netsuke«. A »netsuke« (pronounced: netske) is a toggle with two holes for cord threading. It was loosely attached as a counterpart to a so-called »inro« on the Japanese obi (= sash/belt) and was thus part of the traditional Japanese clothing associated with the kimono. In the accompanying pouch, the inro, wealthy merchants, artists, and craftsmen carried their seal, their stamping ink, and later also their medicine.

In the »kagamibuta« type, the pragmatic sense of the Ja The museum record gives measurements diameter: 3.6 cm, depth: 0.7 cm, depth: 0.4 cm (image surface); diameter: 4.75 cm, depth: 1.4 cm (overall). These details come from the holding museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.