Netsuke
- Museum number:
- 9-7538
- Permalink:
- ark:/21549/hm21090007538
- Alternate number:
- 3-224 (original number), 4-391 (original number), and 5-368 (original number)
- Accession number:
- Acc.2384
- Object count:
- 2
- Description:
- Netsuke in double manju (flat cake, bun) form, made of ivory. Depicts Sennin Kohaku, riding a crane, which is a symbol of longevity. The pine trees on the reverse also signify longevity. Signature is Kōsai, which gives this object a late date as the artist was known to be creating netsuke until 1877.
- Donor:
- Estate of Geraldine C. and Kernan Robson
- Collection place:
- Japan
- Culture or time period:
- Edo period (1603-1868) and Meiji era (1868-1912)
- Maker or artist:
- Kōsai
- Collector:
- Geraldine C. Robson
- Collection date:
- before 1940
- Materials:
- Ivory (material)
- Person depicted:
- Sennin Kohaku
- Object type:
- ethnography
- Function:
- 2.2 Personal Adornments and Accoutrements
- Production date:
- 1800-1877
- Accession date:
- 1968
- Context of use:
- Toggle to be attached to the end of a cord and thrust through the sash of a kimono for the support of a purse, pouch or lacquer box.
- Department:
- Cat. 9 - Asia (incl. Russia east of Urals)
- Dimensions:
- height 4.4 centimeters
- Comment:
- Per Robeson Accession: Manju, a form of Netsuke, shaped like a tea biscuit. That is to say, round and somewhat thick. This manju, in ivory with subject engraved in brown, of a man riding on a crane with a Sho (a wind instrument) with a ribbon attached. Depicts Oshikio, a Chinese Sennin, who lived in Chou Dynasty circa 570 BC. He was fond of playing the Sho to the tune of the phoenix. He was taken by a fairy, to the summit of a mountain. After 30 years, he met a man, whom he told to inform his family that he would appear to them on the summit of Mt. Ko, where they found hum on the appointed day, riding on a white crane. He left a prescription for an elixir whose main ingredient was chrysanthemum shoots, gathered :on the day of the Tiger"in the third month. See Joly, Oshikio, under "Rishis.
- Loans:
- S1970-1971 #109: Department of Art History (UC Berkeley) (April 6, 1971–April 7, 1971) and S1970-1971 #60: Decorative Arts Department (UC Berkeley) (December 7, 1970–December 11, 1970)
- Legacy documentation: