Foreword
by HANS CONRIED
THESE LATE years have witnessed an amazing proliferation of books and articles on netsuke. The treasure first mined by Brockhaus and Weber has been ably refined and mounted by many latter-day scholar-collectors and enhanced by the miracles of modern photographic reproduction, so that we now have answers to almost all our questions about the good old masters and the good old works that have fascinated collectors for a century. One might well believe that, save for reports of occasional new discoveries, little remains to be said. Or so it seemed until the arduous spadework of Mrs. Kinsey revealed that wonders have not ceased and that the netsuke tradition is alive and flourishing in our own time.
“Netsuke-itis” is now a common affliction, an intense acquisitive urge that subsides, normally, only with the onset of severe financial insufficiency. Two general categories of the disease emerge: a craving for the old and a craving for the new. Despite the virulent nature of the disorder, it would now seem that sufferers from both varieties can safely share the same ward, and sometimes even the same bed.
This patient can diagnose his own malady as the kind most prevalent thirty years ago. This was, understandably, a predilection for the “honto” or “true” netsuke, with its aura of samurai times, the signs of wear from usage, the "good color” (if ivory), and the contained form that made it practical. Pieces of this type were readily available, at modest prices, to the collector who had an early start in the quest. True, new netsuke were offered for sale occasionally—the specimens from the So school, for example, which were always of a very high order, even if sometimes “too fussy." But these pieces we were inclined to think unworthy of our attention. Perhaps more to the point, they were considerably dearer than the far more numerous old netsuke whose makers were no longer concerned with the price of rice. This fact, for me at least, may have added an acidity to grapes that hung high.
But times change, and opinions, opportunities, and tastes change with them. Today the demand from collectors and speculative dealers far exceeds the supply of available netsuke, old or new, good or bad. And a whole new generation of young Japanese carvers has been inspired to engage in a craft that not many years ago seemed to be dead or dying. They carve as well as many of their forebears, and their work is more and more in demand.
Here, then, is the book collectors have been waiting for: a thorough compilation of those craftsmen and artists of our own time who, although frankly serving collector rather than wearer, maintain so high a standard of dedicated skill that their work can be judged with that of the old masters.
Mrs. Kinsey, with enterprise, energy, and effort, and, I am sure, with Mr. Kinsey's generous help, has placed the lives and works of these contemporary netsuke-shi within reach of our grateful hands.
Acknowledgments
NUMEROUS people and circumstances, both related and unrelated, plus an understanding husband who shares my enthusiastic addiction to netsuke collecting, have contributed to this study of contemporary netsuke carvers and their work.
Because of the language and distance barriers, the research involved would have been impossible without the competent, dedicated, and loving help of our friend Michiko Matsumoto, who lived with us in California for more than a year while she was studying at U.C.L.A. Michi handled my relations with all of the officers and members of the Japan Ivory Sculptors Association, as well as with dealers and other sources of information. Since the carvers speak no English, she acted as interpreter during all visits with them and translated their written answers to questions. She coordinated picture-taking sessions for Mr. Sugimura and followed through on countless points that had to be checked or expanded. She secured signatures and biographical material from carvers and researched innumerable bits of minutiae that are imperceptible but necessary in a book of this nature. In short, without Michi it would have been virtually impossible for me to complete this book.
The Japan Ivory Sculptors Association, through its officers, its members, and particularly the committee appointed to help me, has been of inestimable assistance. Mr. Toshitake Nakamura, secretary, has spent countless hours getting questionnaires to member carvers, securing proper signatures, and checking and rechecking innumerable details.
I am deeply indebted to a number of dealers, not only for their help in building our collection of contemporary netsuke but also for their assistance in contacting carvers and providing personal information about them: to Mr. Hirokazu Nakayama, of Tokyo, from whom we bought our first netsuke, and subsequently many more, and to his father in Kyoto, now deceased; to Mr. Herman Krupp, an importer in Seattle, whose love and knowledge of netsuke was an inspiration to us during the beginning years of our collecting; to Mr. Kohachiro Yokoyama, of Kyoto, who was responsible for our meeting Keiun and Yukimasa; to Mr. Seiichiro Sunamoto, of Tokyo, and his assistant Mrs. Hashimoto, who arranged our first meeting with Hodo, with Shodo, and with Ryushi; to Mr. Tadao Miyakoshi, through whom we first met Koyu; to Mr. S. Kaneko, of Yokohama, whose association with several of the leading carvers spans several decades; to Mr. Y. Watanabe, of Yokohama and Tokyo, who provided much information about Yoshiyuki, Gaho, and other carvers; to Mrs. N. T. Wakayama of the Asahi Art Co., Tokyo; to Mr. K. Kitagawa; to Mr. Yoshiaki Ohno, of Tokyo; and to Mr. T. Inoue, of Miyanoshita. To Mr. Raymond Bushell, of Tokyo, I am indebted for information about Masatoshi and the picture of him on page 184.
Our first introduction to a carver was arranged by Mr. Nakayama, through Mr. Shigeo Tsujita, who acted as agent for several first-rank carvers. We were taken by him to the home of Ichiro Inada, who became a close personal friend. Mr. Tsujita subsequently arranged for us to meet Yoko and Shogetsu. We were saddened in the fall of 1971 to learn of the death of Mr. Tsujita, to whom we are greatly indebted. We are also indebted to Mr. Tsujita's son for his helpful information in several areas.
Other Japanese friends who have been most generous with their help, particularly in the translating area, include Mr. Kevin Kuniyoshi, of Los Angeles, and Mr. Yoshihiro Saito, of Washington, D.C.
A number of our netsuke-collecting friends have graciously loaned some of their treasures for inclusion in this book: Virginia Atchley, Frontispiece and Figs. 22 and 108; Ann Meselsen, Fig. 116; Hans Conried, Figs. 60, 61, and 62. Mr. Bernard Hurtig kindly loaned us two netsuke: Bumbuku Chagama and Urashima Taro, which served as models for sketches on pages 86 and 90.
A Los Angeles friend, Janet Gross, formerly with Time and Life, was most helpful in making suggestions and corrections in my manuscript.
I have been very fortunate in having two photographers whose exceptional talents have been equaled by their great enthusiasm and intelligent interest in the contemporary carvers and their work: Mr. Tsune Sugimura of Tokyo, Japan's foremost folk-craft photographer and head of one of Japan's most active photography studios, a member of the Japan Society of Photographers, a lecturer at Tokyo's Tama University of the Arts, and an author whose fine work is familiar to Westerners in The Enduring