Netsuke: cone shell, 1800

Netsuke: cone shell, 1800 is held by National Museum of World Cultures Foundation, dated 1800. Museum description: Manju netsuke made from the sawn-off top of a cone shell, Anonymous: Netsuke made of Conus shell The concepts of wabi and sabi in tea ceremony utensils will always remain some of the most difficult in Japanese culture. They involve some notion of a not directly obvious naturalness, at least not so obvious to the uninitiated spectator. There is also an aspect of a natural feeling, or tangibility, and an artlessness, unsophistication, in other words, being uncontrived. This netsuke may well be perfectly suited to illustrate these concepts more readily.‖ This is a netsuke, an object with the very practical purpose of preventing the loss of necessary implements worn by men hanging from the sash. It is attached to such implements, a tobacco pouch, for example, or a tiered medicine-box, inro, by means of a silk cord. By sliding the netsuke and the cord under and behind the sash, it then serves 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.