Netsuke, Bokusai wood Bato dancer, Japan, 18th century

BOKUSAI: AN IMPORTANT AND LARGE WOOD NETSUKE OF A BATO DANCER, SOKEN KISHO TYPE, EX COLLECTION LOUIS GONSE By Bokusai, signed Bokusai 樸斎 with kakihan Japan, late 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Published: 1. Gonse, Louis (1883) L’Art japonais, Paris, A. Quantin, p. 90. 2. Migeon, Gaston (1905) Chefs-d’Œuvre d’Art Japonais, Paris, no. 896, pl. 85. 3. Brockhaus, Albert (1909) Netsuke.

Versuch einer Geschichte der japanischen Schnitzkunst, Leipzig, p. 37, no. 71. 4. Meinertzhagen, Frederick / Lazarnick, George (1986) MCI, Part A, p. 16. Boldly carved in remarkably substantial and sculptural proportions as the masked bugaku dancer Bato standing in a dynamic pose, his arms raised beside his head and the hands engaging with cords associated with the grotesque mask. The fierce face is powerfully rendered with large staring eyes, a prominent nose, deeply furrowed features, and a cavernous open mouth exposing rows of teeth, all framed by finely carved locks of hair and beard. the breast and apron panels superbly carved with dense scrolling designs and tomoe motifs, the elaborate decoration continuing to the back.

Particularly striking is the contrast between the bold, almost monumental modeling of the figure and the remarkably intricate carving and pierced ornament of the costume. The smoothly polished wood is of a warm golden-brown tone with a fine. Large asymmetrical himotoshi cleverly incorporated into the decoration at the back and signed BOKUSAI with kakihan. HEIGHT 8.8 cm, WIDTH (at the arms) 6.6 cm Provenance: The private collection of Louis Gonse (1846-1921). The first Gonse sale was devoted to Japanese works of art and was conducted by F. Lair-Dubreuil and Henri Baudoin, with Charles Vignier and André Portier as experts. Louis Gonse (1846-1921) was one of the formative European scholars and collectors of Japanese art and editor-in-chief of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

His monumental L’Art japonais, published in 1883 in connection with the celebrated retrospective of Japanese art he organized in Paris, played an important role in establishing the serious study of Japanese art in Europe. By 1883 his collection included no fewer than 172 netsuke, and the present carving was among the works he chose to illustrate in L’Art japonais. It remained in his collection until its posthumous sale in 1924. A small plug to the wood in the facial area is original to the carving and further demonstrates the carver’s meticulous workmanship and careful use of the material. The composition is of particular importance as it closely follows a design illustrated in the Soken Kisho of 1781 and credited there to Yoshimura Shuzan (d. 1776).

Shuzan’s celebrated figural carvings provided an important repertoire of models for subsequent generations of netsuke carvers, and Bokusai evidently belonged among those early artists who engaged closely with these designs. In the present work, however, the prototype is translated into an exceptionally bold and individual carving, characterized by unusually substantial proportions, deep modeling, and an extraordinary wealth of ornamental detail. According to Ueda Reikichi, Bokusai was an early carver of human figures and sennin, active in both Edo and Kyoto, whose work he described as sensitive and fine.

The present netsuke demonstrates this refinement while also revealing Bokusai’s remarkable command of bold, large-scale figural carving: the massive silhouette and emphatic modeling are balanced by minute surface detail and elaborate openwork, producing a work that is at once powerful and exceptionally intricate. Gonse further counted Bokusai among the distinguished carvers of the late 18th century and later singled out Bokusai, together with Minkoku, Sensai, and Masanao, for their admirable figural carvings. Bato is one of the most dynamic dances of the bugaku repertoire, a solo hashirimai traditionally classified among the Dances of the Right.

Particularly characteristic is the dramatic handling of the long corded hair of the mask, which is thrown forward and combed through with the fingers during the dance; historical and modern descriptions also record the dancer carrying a short stick or drumsticks. The vigor of the choreography and the extraordinary mask made Bato an especially powerful subject for figural carving.