Netsuke: Japan’s Minature Marvels

I can say from experience that while Japanese kimonos are beautiful, they’re not exactly as comfortable as they look. Nor are they convenient to carry things in. Western style clothing has pockets and zippers to cache stuff away in but how did the Japanese carry their yen or matches or whatever before the invention of the clutch or the fanny pack?

Since kimonos don’t have pockets,women put goods in their sleeves while men stored their goods and money in small purses called sagemono or koshisage. These were made from cloth, leather, wood, bone, ivory, and lacquer and were specially made to carry very specific items. A pipe case for example, would be in the shape of a cylinder and made from a hard material that would protect the delicate piece inside. Pipe cases were called kiseruzutsu in Japanese and like other sagemono were either simple and functional or ornate and decorative. Yatate were fan cases, used naturally, to store a fan in. Inro were small boxes stacked inside one another that were created to carry smaller items of a more general use. Inro were the most functional and the most popular variety of sagemono.

Inro held anything small: tobacco, money, seals, medicine or the old timey Japanese version of matches. The inro, and all sagemono for that matter, was first hung from the hilt of a man’s sword. Inro were little works of art down to the ojime, the bead that slides to open the inro. After a period of time a new method for carrying the sagemono was developed with help of the netsuke.

Netsuke (pronounced neh-skay) first developed to answer the need of the populace for carrying items on their person rather than their sword. The translation for netsuke is ne meaning “root” and –tsuke meaning “attach”.

The mechanics of the netsuke are amazingly simple: First the netsuke is attached to a cord which is then looped under the obi and a sagemono is in turn attached to the free end of the cord. The sagemono then hangs down under the obi while the netsuke acts as a toggle to stop the cord from sliding out.

The fascinating thing about netsuke is not its humble inception and function, but rather the heights it reached in becoming a spectacular Japanese art form. During the Edo period, Japan became increasingly secluded from the outside world and dedicated itself to science and the arts. One of these was the art of carving netsuke.

Netsuke artists used anything that came to hand for their materials, such as coral, wood, ivory, bone, shell, metal and even ceramics and some stones. The subject matter was usually Japanese folklore and mythology with a fair amount of Chinese influence. A person would easily be floored at the craftsmanship of some these carvings. The details carved out bring to life scenes from ancient legends, such as Guan Yin pacifying a dragon, and mundane every day subjects like frogs or the drunk guy that never pays his sake tab.

After the Edo period, Japan once again partook in trading with nationalities other than the Dutch and the Chinese. They exported netsuke to other countries that eagerly snatched up these collectibles. In Europe the netsuke took off while, ironically, the netsuke was losing its appeal in Japan as Western clothes became more predominant there.

While Europeans became more and more enamored with all things Japanese, the netsuke being produced overseas in Japan lost most, if not all, of their functionality and became pure decoration. Other countries saw the netsuke’s popularity and decided to cash in on it by producing lower quality netsuke that, nonetheless, sold like hotcakes.

Today netsuke collecting is an expensive past time for many a collector. Carvings signed by famous artists can fetch anywhere from $10,000 on up. Subject matter and material also play key parts in driving up the desirability, and therefore price, of these lil’ beauties.

Netsukes are still being produced today and have even found their way into anime by way of cell phone strap charms. Who knows what’s next for the humble netsuke? But if it’s made it this far, I doubt it’ll be going away any time soon.