28th Apr, 2023 13:00
Fine Netsuke & Sagemono
249
OKATOMO: A VERY RARE EBONY WOOD MASK NETSUKE OF AN OLD MAN (JO)
Sold for €1,040
including Buyer's Premium
By Yamaguchi Okatomo, signed Okatomo 岡友
Japan, Kyoto, late 18th to early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)
Powerfully carved, the narrowed eyes with incised and raised lids, the furrowed brows well carved and sparingly incised, the mouth slightly open in a subtle smile showing teeth, the long mustache and chin beard neatly incised, the chin beard continuing to the reverse up to the himotoshi bar and forming part of the cord channel, the bar signed OKATOMO.
HEIGHT 5.1 cm
Condition: Very good condition, minor wear, few tiny nicks.
The Noh masks that served as the inspiration for the present netsuke and others like it were fitted with natural hair (usually horsehair) to indicate the mustache and beard, and sometimes also the eyebrows. The ingenious detail of the beard leading up to the himotoshi bar and forming part of the cord channel is thus a departure of the usual mode of adhering closely to the actual Noh mask that was copied in miniature by the carver.
The term Jo denotes a large corpus of indigenous masks that portray old men. These masks were worn, and still are, for a myriad of agrarian fertility rituals, rites for propitiating the gods of nature, and ceremonies associated with folk festivals. They usually represent an aged deity or an apotheosized elder. In the early days of Noh, there was only a single type of Jo mask which satisfied the need for any play requiring the role of an old man, but as new plays were written there was an increasing need for a variety of masks.
Literature comparison:
Mask netsuke by Okatomo are extremely rare. The only recorded example is an ivory netsuke of the face of oiwa as a lantern ghost, illustrated in Harris, Victor (1987) The Hull Grundy Collection in the British Museum, p. 36, no. 92.
By Yamaguchi Okatomo, signed Okatomo 岡友
Japan, Kyoto, late 18th to early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)
Powerfully carved, the narrowed eyes with incised and raised lids, the furrowed brows well carved and sparingly incised, the mouth slightly open in a subtle smile showing teeth, the long mustache and chin beard neatly incised, the chin beard continuing to the reverse up to the himotoshi bar and forming part of the cord channel, the bar signed OKATOMO.
HEIGHT 5.1 cm
Condition: Very good condition, minor wear, few tiny nicks.
The Noh masks that served as the inspiration for the present netsuke and others like it were fitted with natural hair (usually horsehair) to indicate the mustache and beard, and sometimes also the eyebrows. The ingenious detail of the beard leading up to the himotoshi bar and forming part of the cord channel is thus a departure of the usual mode of adhering closely to the actual Noh mask that was copied in miniature by the carver.
The term Jo denotes a large corpus of indigenous masks that portray old men. These masks were worn, and still are, for a myriad of agrarian fertility rituals, rites for propitiating the gods of nature, and ceremonies associated with folk festivals. They usually represent an aged deity or an apotheosized elder. In the early days of Noh, there was only a single type of Jo mask which satisfied the need for any play requiring the role of an old man, but as new plays were written there was an increasing need for a variety of masks.
Literature comparison:
Mask netsuke by Okatomo are extremely rare. The only recorded example is an ivory netsuke of the face of oiwa as a lantern ghost, illustrated in Harris, Victor (1987) The Hull Grundy Collection in the British Museum, p. 36, no. 92.
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