A netsuke of a Haniwa figure by Masatoshi

Contemporary, February 1975
Height: 1 1/2 in. (3.74 cm.)

A netsuke carved in the form of the head of an Haniwa burial figure [Haniwa no atama] from unknown material given to Masatoshi. It is signed "Masatoshi sha" on the back of the neck.

In "The Art of Netsuke Carving", Masatoshi writes: "I have never seen haniwa (clay burial figurines) depicted in old netsuke. They have an elusive but distinctive charm, so it's hard to know why netsuke-shi did not take to them. It may be because Hokusai and other draftsmen didn't think to include them in the their design manuals. The head I copied is from a famous haniwa reproduced in many catalogues with critical essays by scholars. The critics do not agree on whether the head belongs to a man or to a woman, whether it is laughing or crying, and whether the object atop the head is a helmet or a coiffure. I carved the head as a "warrior with helmet," but it is also described as a woman with a sort of symmetrical hair in style called taiseishiki. The confusion in no way diminishes the attractiveness of the subject. I nicked the hear here and there to imitate the condition of the haniwa. The material was given to me. It was about sixteen centimeters long and just over three centimeters in diameter, a solid, straight, cylindrical shape. I am quite unable to identify it. All I know is that I have never used or seen it before, and I can say positively that it is not ivory, whale-tooth, hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, boar's tusk, or boar's tooth. It mistifies me."

Published:
"The Art of Netsuke Carving" by Masatoshi as told to Raymond Bushell (reprint 1992), cat. no. 158

Provenance: Raymond and Frances Bushell

Ref. 1015901

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