Kinko and the Carp
Plate 42. Kinko and the Carp
Two Sages and Their Magic Horses
Plate 43. Chokaro and His Horse
Plate 44. Iwa-genki and His Horse
Ashinaga and Tenaga
*Plate 45. Ashinaga and Tenaga
Kanzan and Jittoku
Plate 46. Kanzan and Jittoku
Tennin, the Angel
Plate 47. Tennin
Daruma, Founder of Zen
Plate 48. Daruma
Choryo and the Sandal
Plate 49. Choryo and the Old Man
PREFACE:
It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write the preface to this book.
The general public has begun to become familiar with the numerous personages—gods and goddesses, fabulous or mythical people and animals—of Japanese legendry. But it knows them chiefly through prints, designs, and paintings, or through the decorative motifs of Japanese objets d'art, and rarely through the little sculptures, generally of ivory or wood, that are called netsuke.
It is astonishing that the knowledge of netsuke should still be so little diffused. For this reason, we can rejoice in the fact that a book like this one does not address itself solely to a small circle of specialists (the collectors of netsuke are like a large family that occupies and amuses itself with these objects) but chiefly to the general public.
One rarely finds netsuke in exhibits, and it is infrequently indeed that one comes across them in museums. Nor does one truly realize the grandeur of conception of these objects until one examines them closely or studies them in considerably enlarged photographs. One understands then that these tiny objets d'art can well bear comparison with the works of the greatest sculptors. Yet, as objects for collection, netsuke have the advantage of taking up little space, for one can place them in small drawers or miniature glass cabinets, and the collector can always carry his favorite netsuke with him.
As the sculptor Marcel Wolfers has written: "Always available for handling, netsuke appeal first of all to the tactile sense. Their modeling, their charm, and their contrasts are appreciated by caressing them lovingly, and it is in this that the secret of their admirable patina lies."
Felix Tikotin
Wassenaar,
The Netherlands
AUTHOR' NOTE:
It was about twelve years ago that my interest was turned to netsuke, those masterpieces of miniature sculpture that I have here called "fables in ivory" more in the figurative than the literal sense, although it is true that many of the best netsuke have actually been carved in ivory. My interest has developed, I confess, into an ever-increasing enthusiasm. When I saw and touched my first netsuke (I say "touched" advisedly, for a genuine netsuke must be as agreeable to the touch as to the sight), I was extremely fascinated. This little object seemed charming to me, but I didn't know what it was. I began to study the subject and little by little acquired quite a collection of literature concerning netsuke. I followed the sales of Far Eastern objets d'art, searched the shops, spent hours with major and minor antiquaries, visited museums in various countries of Europe, in the United States, and recently in Japan. Item by item, during the course of years, I have acquired a collection of about five hundred netsuke.
A number of infinitely more important ones have passed through my hands, and I must add that each new netsuke has almost every time been a subject of research for me: the material from which it was carved, what it depicted, the legend or tale that inspired the artist, sometimes the deciphering of the signature, the era and the style in which it was created, and so forth. These researches led me naturally to set up a kind of catalog of my own collection. Then the great diversity and multiplicity of the subjects obliged me to devise a card index. As I assembled and classified my notes, I one day found myself in the process of writing an actual book about netsuke.
I worked hard, and the book threatened to become more and more important and more and more technical, aimed only at specialists. Now, in the course of these years of work, I arrived at several conclusions: first, that very few people, aside from Japanese collectors of objets d'art, knew the charming legends of old Japan; then, that even fewer people knew what a netsuke was, even though many of them might have several in a glass case in the living room; and, finally, that most of the photographs of netsuke in books hardly did justice to them. Some carvers of netsuke have achieved genuine masterpieces on a level with those of the great sculptors of every period and place, but often these little objects are unknown or slighted, since people do not take the trouble to study them attentively.
It was for these reasons that I decided to abandon my overtechnical book in order to assemble about forty legends among those best known in Japan and to illustrate them with enlarged photographs of netsuke of the sort that would enable readers to familiarize themselves with an art that "is so great within the small."
Special acknowledgments and thanks are due to my two close collaborators. Jean A. Lavaud, photographer of the Musée Guimet in Paris, did all the photography in this book, understanding precisely the spirit in which I desired to have photographic enlargements of netsuke made. Ralph Friedrich, poet and an editor with the Charles E. Tuttle Company in Tokyo, did by far the larger part of the work of translating this book from my French manuscript, at the same time supplying a number of interesting additions and helpful suggestions from his wide knowledge of Japan.
I take advantage of this note also to thank, first of all, the person who originally acquainted me with netsuke, and then, all those who inspired me to love, understand, and acquire them. My acknowledgment goes particularly to Felix Tikotin, of Wassenaar, the Netherlands, who was an excellent teacher. Equal thanks go to all those who generously loaned me netsuke for reproduction here, and especially to Georges Coedès, Curator of the Musée d'Ennery.
ADRIENNE BARBANSON LEFÈVRE-VACQUERIE
Garches, France
NETSUKE AND JAPANESE LEGENDS:
Many of Japan's ancient myths and legends are of foreign inspiration. They stem chiefly from India and China, and occasionally from Tibet, Burma, or Korea. Little by little, they were transformed and finally made Japanese.
As for legends of purely Japanese origin, they are of two kinds: those which go back to the beginnings of the Shinto religion—the most ancient of Japanese religions, which already existed twelve centuries before the introduction of Buddhism into Japan in the sixth century a.d.—and those more recent, dating from the Middle Ages of Japan.
The latter were inspired by the epic poems and high exploits of celebrated warriors, or again by the adventures of Buddhist monks or of exalted persons of the imperial court. A considerable number of books, illustrated manuscripts, and commentaries relate their doings down to the last detail.
The oldest collections, the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki, were compiled in the eighth century a.d. and describe the creation of the heavens and the earth, the existence of the gods, and events of remotest times in Japan. The Taketori Monogatari, which is the oldest specimen of Japanese romantic literature, describes mainly the customs of the court at Kyoto. Later, in the seventeenth century, there were the ehon, or illustrated books, which became more and more refined. It was in these that the first woodblock prints appeared. At the beginning of the eighteenth century a Japanese painter, Tachibana no Morikuni, illustrated more than one hundred works—inspired as he was by the legends and the history of Japan. Finally, one of the best known of Japanese artists, Hokusai (17601849), created a masterpiece, the Hokusai Manga,