3-73 (original number), 4-188 (original number), and 5-160 (original number)
Accession number:
Acc.2384
Object count:
1
Description:
Netsuke: man in brown coat with white cuffs and beard.
Donor:
Estate of Geraldine C. and Kernan Robson
Collection place:
Japan
Culture or time period:
Japanese
Collector:
Geraldine C. Robson
Collection date:
before 1940
Materials:
Ivory (material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Netsukes
Function:
2.2 Personal Adornments and Accoutrements
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:
Asia (except western Russia)
Dimensions:
height 6.3 centimeters
Comment:
Per Robeson Accession File: Netsuke, in ivory of man in a very brown coat, with white cuffs, and white beard, with the look of all the amiable philosophy, that his doctrine of Wu Wei (do nothing and have everything) did give him. Chuang Tzu. "Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu dreamt I was a butterfly. I was conscious of following only my fancies, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I awakened, and there I lay, myself again. Now, I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am a man." He lived in the second half the fourth century BC and was master of a very vivid style. He was a Taoist, the mystic's way of contemplation and inward illumination.