22nd Apr, 2022 13:00

Fine Netsuke & Sagemono

 
  Lot 285
 

285

DEME UMAN: A WOOD MASK NETSUKE OF USOFUKI

Sold for €2,528

including Buyer's Premium


Lot details

By Deme Uman, signed Deme Uman 出目右滿
Japan, Edo (Tokyo), early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Published: Bushell, Raymond (1985) Netsuke Masks, pl. 228

Well carved with an amusing expression, the elongated lips puckered in a whistle, indicated also by the sunken cheeks, the wide eyes with pierced pupils below ridged and subtly incised brows, the broad nose with large nostrils, the reverse with a central himotoshi bar signed DEME UMAN.

HEIGHT 5.2 cm

Condition: Very good condition with minor surface wear.
Provenance: Ex-collection Raymond Bushell. Sotheby’s, 21 March 2000, New York, lot 303 (part lot). European collection P. Jacquesson, acquired from the above.

Deme Uman was the grandson of Deme Juman, who is regarded as the originator of mask netsuke. He is regarded as the most celebrated of mask netsuke makers and worked almost invariably in wood.

Usofuki is a Kyogen mask type which is not well standardized, but easily identifiable by the pursed or puckered lips, lending the mask (and the actor wearing it) a highly comical expression. The noun usobuki or usofuki is a gerund of the verb usobuku, which has many meanings: exhale sharply, whistle, hum, intone, howl or bay, pretend ignorance, and brag. A highly regarded ethnographer and linguist, the late Shinobu Orikuchi assigned a much earlier meaning to usobuku: taunt, oppose, and rebel. He specifically interpreted the pursed lips of old indigenous masks as signifying imminent speech, as the expression of seirei determined to speak out in defiance but constrained by the consequences of thereby acknowledging the authority of the kami.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related wood mask netsuke of Usofuki by Deme Uman, also dated 19th century, at Sotheby’s, The Betty Jahss Collection of Netsuke – Part 1, 13 June 1991, London, lot 29.

 

By Deme Uman, signed Deme Uman 出目右滿
Japan, Edo (Tokyo), early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Published: Bushell, Raymond (1985) Netsuke Masks, pl. 228

Well carved with an amusing expression, the elongated lips puckered in a whistle, indicated also by the sunken cheeks, the wide eyes with pierced pupils below ridged and subtly incised brows, the broad nose with large nostrils, the reverse with a central himotoshi bar signed DEME UMAN.

HEIGHT 5.2 cm

Condition: Very good condition with minor surface wear.
Provenance: Ex-collection Raymond Bushell. Sotheby’s, 21 March 2000, New York, lot 303 (part lot). European collection P. Jacquesson, acquired from the above.

Deme Uman was the grandson of Deme Juman, who is regarded as the originator of mask netsuke. He is regarded as the most celebrated of mask netsuke makers and worked almost invariably in wood.

Usofuki is a Kyogen mask type which is not well standardized, but easily identifiable by the pursed or puckered lips, lending the mask (and the actor wearing it) a highly comical expression. The noun usobuki or usofuki is a gerund of the verb usobuku, which has many meanings: exhale sharply, whistle, hum, intone, howl or bay, pretend ignorance, and brag. A highly regarded ethnographer and linguist, the late Shinobu Orikuchi assigned a much earlier meaning to usobuku: taunt, oppose, and rebel. He specifically interpreted the pursed lips of old indigenous masks as signifying imminent speech, as the expression of seirei determined to speak out in defiance but constrained by the consequences of thereby acknowledging the authority of the kami.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related wood mask netsuke of Usofuki by Deme Uman, also dated 19th century, at Sotheby’s, The Betty Jahss Collection of Netsuke – Part 1, 13 June 1991, London, lot 29.

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