AN IVORY NETSUKE OF MANY TOADS ON A LOTUS LEAF BY MASAMITSU
Ivory netsukeJapanlate 19th century, Meiji period (1868-1912)This netsuke carver became known especially for his densely crafted animal groups. This piece – perfectly rounded on the exterior – shows a swarm of gama, one of them presumably the mother as she is larger than the other toads. They appear as if moving and strike different poses, the young are entirely smooth, all have black inlaid eyes. A snake coils around the group and is attacking one of the young toads, an allusion to the sansukumi motif. As a netsuke-motif, sansukumi, which means “mutual control”, signifies that the snake will eat the frog, but that the frog has already eaten a snail. However, because the snail’s slime is poisonous, so too the snake must perish. The entire group is crawling around a lotus leaf, with the himotoshi around the edge of the stem. The signature within the branch-like structures is not easy to find – MASAMITSU.WIDTH 5.3 CMCondition: Good condition with expected wear. No inlays missing (which is rare for these pieces), the leg of the attacked frog is chipped.Provenance: German private collection