The Art Of Carving Netsuke

This is a guide to the intricate skill of creating Japanese netsuke, traditionally created for practical reasons, yet now highly collectible works of art. Concise, step-by-step instructions are accompanied by numerous photographs taking the reader through a wide range of projects.

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.

Masatoshi, born Nakamura Tokisada, is among the finest of carvers. His work has been little available because his co-author, Raymond Bushell, has for years acquired all Masatoshi's carvings. This is a splendid catalog of the Bushell collection. Some 350 excellent color plates are included with the carver's description of the subject, material, pigment, date of completion. A long section details Masatoshi's background, training influences, tools and carving technique, coloring, publishing, the ideas for his subjects. An elegant and admirable book. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Catalogue of Japanese netsuke in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, including the early holdings of Noah H. Swayne and Harry Fee, and the recent donation by Richard R. Silverman.

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.

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.

If you thought carving a linked chain or a ball-in-cage was a challenge, get ready for some mind-altering woodcarving projects! Learn how to uncover the structure of space by looking inside a piece of wood and carving away anything that doesn't match your vision.

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.