Ivory Netsuke of Skull with Snake

This Netsuke found me. Indeed, I did not set out to search for a skull. But somehow, he made his way to me, escaping from oblivion, on a half forgotten, but promisingly messy shelf.

Memento mori were as popular in Japan as they were in Europe and nowadays there is a revival in these artifacts; skull motifs in particular.

The Netsuke is fashioned from a considerable chunk of ivory, grinning and grimly revealing his teeth. His eye-sockets are so large and deep, that for some reason, I am reminded of Star Wars. From his jaw, a snake winds out with tail still writhing around inside the large skull. The snake’s head is upside down, looking upwards, forked tongue spitting out. The skill is not quite realistic, it seems more of a mask and one needs to enjoy a gothic fascination as its owner. However, right on the back of the skull, below the snake’s head and between the two holes there is a signature. One can read it as Tomoichi or as Tomokazu. Both existed as Netsuke carvers, one active during the Edo period, one during Showa (20th Century). I could not yet fully ascribe the identity of the Netsuke to either and hence price him cheaper, as he is from the 20th Century.

Here is the challenge: I have samples of the signature from the Edo artist Tomokazu from the early 19th Century, but the characters signed on the skull are not exactly clear enough a match for me to be entirely convinced. This leads me to think that it reads "Tomoichi" the contemporary Showa Netsuke carver. Furthermore, the skull's features are not as proportionally and finely cut as I would expect from an old Netsuke, yet the ivory has a wonderful brown, shiny patina, as well as some thin crack-lines on the back of the skull; suggestive of a much older age than simply 70 years. Despite its size, it is easy to hold the Netsuke in your palm and enjoy its round, marble like texture. I will continue to trace his maker but until then, I have priced it towards the lower end of the spectrum.

DB