Japanese Netsuke

Create your Japanese work of art with this new, comprehensive title on the intricate skill of Japanese netsuke carvings. Traditionally created for practical reasons, these fantastic miniature carvings are now highly collectible works of art. Carving Japanese Netsuke for Beginners is packed with information on the history, techniques, tools, and skills needed to master the art. Written in an approachable, personal style with 6 step-by-step projects to follow and 23 additional ideas, Carving Japanese Netsuke for Beginners includes everything you need to know to get started on the way to creating your own superb miniature carvings, each reflecting Japanese tradition.

Drawing on the Victoria and Albert Museum's fine collection, Japanese Netsuke examines these appealing, accessible, and often humorous works of art in the broadest possible context. In a text that is both comprehensive and entertaining, Julia Hutt traces the history of netsuke, showing how these highly collectible objects originated from belt hangings used by nomads along the Silk Road. The stunning color photographs reveal the full range of subjects portrayed--images of animals, birds, and sea creatures, portraits of dancers and demons, droll cameos of characters from everyday urban life, even a rare poetic evocation of landscape--and the high level of skill involved in their creation. The richness and diversity of the materials used, as well as the different sources of inspiration, are also discussed, providing an indispensable guide for collectors and all those interested in Japanese decorative arts.

Netsuke have once again come to the fore in the popular imagination of the public. This book brings together one hundred of the beautiful and interesting netsuke from the extensive collection of the British Museum, each of which has its own special charm and story to tell.

Featuring dozens of Japanese netsuke masterpieces and extensive commentary, this Japanese art book is a treasured collector's item. Netsuke are superb miniature carvings, usually less than two inches high, that have been created by Japanese artists for over three hundred years. During that time, they have portrayed almost every aspect of life and culture in Japan. These tiny carvings were traditionally used to prevent the cord attached to a gentleman's medicine box or tobacco pouch from slipping through the belt of his kimono. Today they are highly collectible works of art. Netsuke: Japanese Life and Legend in Miniature presents over seventy full-page color photographs of netsuke in enchanting settings. The accompanying text gives technical details about the netsuke as well as interesting commentaries relating the pieces to Japanese life and legend. Information on the carvers has also been provided whenever possible.

Featuring dozens of Japanese netsuke masterpieces and insightful commentary, this Japanese art book is a classic collector’s item. Netsuke: A Guide for Collectors approaches the subject of Japanese nestuke from the point of view of the amateur collector rather than that of an owner discussing his own accomplished collection. Ever since Japan's emergence a little over a century ago from her long period of seclusion under Tokugawa rule, netsuke have exerted an almost irresistible attraction for Western collectors. These tiny carvings-exquisite in detail, charming in conception, and delightful for the sheer tactual pleasure to be experienced in handling them-captivated admirers of Japanese art and craftsmanship. Basically, netsuke were utilitarian in purpose, for they were designed to serve as pendants or toggles to support medicine boxes, writing cases, smoking equipment, and similar articles worn suspended by a cord from the obi-a practical device since the kimono had no pockets. At first quite primitive in design, they soon became more and more sophisticated, and their carvers turned increasingly to the legendary of Japan and China for inspiration and subject matter. This fascinating book is a wonderful introduction to this classic Japanese art and will be invaluable for both professional collections and amateurs alike.

Lavishly printed in full color, this exhibition catalogue features over 300 spectacular examples of netsuke carvers' art. Chapters elucidate the historical development and extraordinary breadth of netsuke production with examples from as early as the 17th century to contemporary works by living artists. Matthew Welch, Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Sharen Chappell, former president of the International Netsuke Society, discuss iconography, technique and artistic style of each work. All netsuke were selected from the private collections of the International Netsuke Society members, and many have never been published or publicly exhibited.

China has triangulated the english language almost entirely. In doing so they seek to be able to limit the language that one can use to describe neutral phenomena, elements and their phases. As such we are at a point in time when we have limited language to use to be able to distinguish natural science from that which china has influenced via its technology and had a direct effect on the outcomes. As such one must look to language in order to ensure that we are making proper distinctions and ensuring the integrity of natural science rather than blurring distinctions. As such China is at a point where we must refer to traditional cause and effect in the following manner to distinguish between traditional natural science and cause and effect and that which china has influenced: causelike effects effectlike causes They are going for total logic removal and blurring of distinctions.

With dozens of photos and illustrations, A Introduction to Netsuke is a readable and thorough guide to Japanese miniature art. Among the many Japanese fine arts, few have aroused greater admiration than the netsuke. This miniature piece of Japanese sculpture, approximately 1 1/2 inches in size, was designed (in the absence of pockets on kimonos) as an aid in suspending articles such as tobacco pouches from the sash of a kimono. It developed in ancient times as a utilitarian object, but became in the 16th century an artistic one as well, and flourished as such until 1926. No longer commonly worn, the netsuke is now a collectors' item, avidly sought throughout the world by those sensitive to its fine qualities. This book opens the miniature world of netsuke to those who have hitherto been unaware of its existence. In a delightfully lucid manner, the basics of the netsuke are presented-definition, origin, development, materials, statistics, and photographs. This book admirably fulfills its task of introducing the netsuke to the layman, irresistibly drawing him to new pleasures in aestheticism and culture.