United Press International
Japanese netsuke art goes global
February 6, 2007
By FREDERICK M. WINSHIP
NEW YORK, Feb. 6 (UPI) - The Japanese art of miniature carvings known as “netsuke” has never gone out of style in the land of its origin, but recently it has captured the interest of numerous Western artists who have given this centuries-old craft a new vitality.
The midtown Museum of Arts & Design had mounted a stunningly beautiful show of contemporary netsuke representing the work of 60 international artists to run through June 17. More than 100 examples illustrate the continuity of a craft that had its origins in 17th century Japan and takes note of changes in their form and in the materials with which they are made in modern times.
Netsuke once had a practical use as part of a toggle. They were invented as an attractive button-like feature on the waist sash (obi) of a man’s pocketless kimono from which was suspended by cords a small lacquer box (inro) with compartments, originally designed to carry one’s signature seal but later to carry medicines or personal items. The cords secured the inro compartments in place.
Since the kimono gave way to Western dress in the late 19th century’s progressive era of Emperor Meji, netsuke have been treasured as miniature sculptures and collected by connoisseurs around the world. Since they no longer have to be smooth to prevent damage to silken kimonos or sturdy to avoid breakage, new materials are being used by contemporary artisans to produce netsuke for the art market.
Jade, prized for its smoothness, is a traditional netsuke material still widely used, but elephant ivory a favorite of netsuke craftsmen for centuries, is no longer legal and fossilized mammoth or walrus tusk ivory has been substituted for it. Antler horn from stags, popular because its rough texture looks like fur, as well as ox horn are commonly used today, as are woods such as boxwood and ebony. Nuts and cones, particularly petrified araucaria cones, are occasional netsuke materials.
Metal in the form of various alloys is emerging as a popular material for netsuke, along with modern acrylics and resin crystal, sometimes in combination. Clay, carved with a knife and fired as many as eight times, is used, but rarely. One of the most popular netsuke materials is lacquer, an ancient Japanese specialty, and many netsuke are inlaid with silver or gold, another traditional Japanese skill.
Examples of how creativity continues to flourish within the confines of tradition include a late 19th century Japanese inro ensemble featuring a dragonfly motif and a contemporary Japanese netsuke dragonfly in the form of a lacquer button. This tendency to look to the past is more common with Japanese craftsmen that with artists from other countries- the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand- represented in the show.
Outstanding examples of the use of various materials is Tachihara Kangyoku’s “Standing Monkey”, a cunning little creature with one foot lifted to its face, carved of ivory tusk with shell inlay, Fukuyama Kozan’s “Hula Dancing Hippo” carbed from boxwood so that the wood’s grain simulates hippopotamus skin, British artist David Blissett’s malevolent “Toad” fashioned of dark matte-surfaced ebony, and American artist Whittaker Freegard’s “Gecko’s Lunch”, an amusing little lizard in spinach jade.
German artist Ford Hallam has used a combination of silver, copper and gold to create the image of a rabbit, titled “Hare” on a round button. Austrian Gernot Schluifer’s “Frog on a Lily Pad” combines optical crystal, jade and metals. American Bradley Blakely’s “Snowflake” has embedded silver dot inlays in an ivory button to evoke a wintry impression, and Muramatsu Shingetsu’s “Spotting a New Hen” uses lacquer to create an amorous white rooster with a red crest and shell-inlaid eyes.
Not all artists use animal forms, particularly American artists who find inspiration in the human form. Choosing a subject that would be taboo among conservative Japanese artists, Roy Rankin has sculpted “Crouching Nude Woman”, a contorted figure with long hair, out of polished mammoth tusks, and David Carlin’s “Snail Racer” depicts a jockey applying a whip to his slow-moving gastropod mount, a tiny masterpiece carved out of boxwood with bone inlay.
An American team of inro craftsmen, Lynn Richardson and Armin Muller, have taken the art into a new world of miniature illusion, best exemplified by their “Provence Inro Suite” in porcelain with combines a netsuke in the form of a conical straw hat with an inro decorated with a field of sunflowers under a blue sky. It is an innovative as Nakanishi Hiroaki’s use of black lacquer over a rub red glass, a non-traditional combination, in making netsuke embellished with a gold butterfly.