Shominsai Tomotada: Wood Netsuke of a Boar Resting on Autumn Leaves

SHOMINSAI TOMOTADA: A FINE WOOD NETSUKE OF A BOAR RESTING ON AUTUMN LEAVES By Shominsai Tomotada, signed Tomotada 友忠 Japan, early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely carved as a recumbent boar resting with its short legs drawn tightly beneath its compact, rounded body, the elongated snout lowered and the narrow eyes lending the animal a placid expression.

The dense coat is rendered with innumerable fine incisions following the contours of its powerful form, with the bristled ridge along the back and deeply hollowed ears particularly well observed. Good himotoshi underneath, one natural and one pierced, and signed TOMOTADA within a rectangular reserve. The present composition is closely related to the painterly theme of Akikusa ni fusuru inoshishi (‘A Wild Boar Lying Amidst Autumn Plants’), published in 1720 in an instructional picture book by Tachibana Morikuni.

The correspondence is particularly apparent in the sweeping grasses and prominently projecting leaves enveloping the animal. Rather than treating the foliage as a secondary surface ornament, Shominsai Tomotada translates Morikuni’s design into a boldly sculptural arrangement of high-relief, deeply undercut leaves, setting the carving apart from more conventional early Kyoto treatments of the subject.