Netsuke: castle framed inside clam shell. Castle elaborately decorated: columns, staircase. In rear, man seated. Legend of Clam's Dream. According to the donors catalog "netsuke in ivory of an imposing castle framed in a clam shell. There is an elaborate entry with fluted columns - a grand stairway - the bastioned wall - and above galleries where the castle guests are seen at dead centre - at the extreme rear a man is seated. The Japanese have an idea that the breath of a clam may invoke a vision of unreality - Either a ghastly mirage of some past drama - or a castle - in the air of some beloved dream. In this case it is a ghastly mirage. Loga no Unako (the second greatest man in Japan) built a great and mighty castle about 623 AD. When he died, his son Iruka inherited it. He also inherited his father's deadly enemy Kamatari Fujuwara (Japan's greatest man). Kamatari ruthlessly stalked Iruka—and Iruka, aware of it, lurked in the innermost penetralia of his castle. His daughter Tachibana Heine, the mistress of Kamatari, invited him one day to the castle - and presented him with a thread which would lead him straight to her father in his citadel near the rear of the palace. However the fiancée of Kamatari, Amiwa, jealous and suspicious unbeknown to him followed him and when Tachibana Heine gave him the thread, Amiwa sneaked behind him - and in her turn, attached a thread to his coat. Her presence thickened the plot to such a degree that it was discovered by the guards of the palace. Luckily for Kamatari, the thread that bound him to her was broken - and she was sufficiently loyal to die without saying a word. Iruka escaped this time but later was trapped by Kamatari and his friend Napa no Oye - before the Empress Seimee and her son Tenchi - trapped and assassinated thereupon Kamatari founded his great dynasty of control, which lasted over 500 years. In the netsuke Tachibana is seen in the grand stairway welcoming Kamatari, as he enters, to the left. Alone in the gallery some of the superficial people of the palace of no political importance are shown in the centre - extreme rear - the remote and shadowy Iruka may be discerned. Much in little n'est-ce pas?"
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 4.5 centimeters and height 3.4 centimeters
Comment:
donor base/stand marked with catalog number LW 2015-10-29
Loans:
S1968-1969 #4: University of California, Berkeley (July 2, 1968–May 3, 1973)