TAMETAKA
An important wood netsuke of Shoki, the demon
queller, standing in a voluminous belted robe partly embellished
with an extensive and unworn ukibori cloud design,
his face drawn into a toothy grimace. His long hair and
beard flow together over his shoulders and down his back,
and his hands clasp together behind him, where he secretes
his sword in its scabbard, the larger asymmetrical hole
of the himotoshi concealed up his sleeve. The
sword hilt is the key to a surprise, for it is moveable,
and when lifted or depressed it causes Shoki’s eyes
to revolve vertically from wood eyeballs with hollow pupils,
staring down perplexedly at his feet, to metallic balls
inset with circular pupils, staring fiercely ahead. When
the sword is unsheathed, he is angry; when it is safely
back in its scabbard, merely angrily confused and downcast.
A third expression, perhaps intended by the carver, is
of a sinister, slitty-eyed effect caught between the other
two, when the sword hilt is only halfway raised.
Signed on
the feet in pristine ukibori characters Choshu
Tametaka.
Nagoya,
circa 1760
Height:
3 3/8 in., 8.6 cm.
Dr.
Melvin Jahss, New York.
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