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Pitt Rivers Museum

1980.34.857.1

Manju netsuke

On display


1980.34.857.1

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Manju netsuke
Long description
Circular wood disc netsuke toggle [.1] with ivory masks, stained green, and inlaid; in the middle and attached by string sits a small mask of Kitsune [.2]. [N.B. 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 26/4/2005]
Geographical reference
Cultural groups
Japanese
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source Hermann Arthur Gunther
PRM source Albert Everard Gunther
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1922
Date collected
By 1922
Acquisition information
Loaned: 1944 Donated: 1980
Materials and processes
Material Animal Ivory Tooth, Material Wood Plant, Material Mother of Pearl Shell, Material Pigment, Material Silver Metal, Process Carved, Process Inscribed, Process Inlaid, Process Perforated, Process Stained
Dimensions
Diameter: max 46 mm, Diameter: max 13 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1980.34.857.1 Accession number: 1980.34.857.2
Research and responses

Oni is a demon or ogre. See http://www.obakemono.com/obake/oni/.

Hyottoko is a Noh mask, described in 'Japan Encyclopedia' as 'perhaps an old mask used in Kagura, portraying a peasant with a stubbled face and protruding lips, with a comical appearance'. (Japan Encyclopedia, by Louis Frederic, Harvard University Press 2002).

Heida is a Noh mask of a warrior with a sun-burnt face who has spent days in battlefields. See http://www.the-noh.com/sub/jp/index.php?mode=db&action=e_view_detail&data_id=52&class_id=1.

Buaku is the mask of a demon from the Kyogen tradition, a form of comic theatre which developed alongisde Noh. See http://www.masksoftheworld.com/Orient/Japanese 20Fool 20Mask.htm.

Hannya is a Noh mask expressing jealousy, grudge, sorrow and grief of women. See http://www.the-noh.com/sub/jp/index.php?mode=db&action=e_view_detail&data_id=11&class_id=1.

Daikoku is one of the Seven Gods of Luck.

Okina is a mask of an old man. See http://www.the-noh.com/sub/jp/index.php?mode=db&action=e_index&class_id=1.

Okame, also called Uzume, is the Goddess of Mirth. See Joly, Henri L., Legend in Japanese Art, 1908 (London: John Lane The Bodley Head). p.384.

I have not been able to identify Shiofuku. A Google search brings up a lot of sex and comicbook related stuff. Possibly something to do with mermaids.[El.B 19/01/2012]

Search terms: Music, Mask, Writing, Clothing, Ornament, Bead, Musical Instrument, Inscription, Toggle