IVORY NETSUKE
Japan, circa 1800 with signature Hide Masa
H. 2 5/8 inches

HIS netsuke, carved in the image of a Dutch trader clutching a chicken, is signed by the maker, Hide Masa on the coat-tail. Carvings such as this reflect the reaction of the xenophobic Japanese, part fascination and part revulsion, towards the newly arrived Europeans.

Between the expulsion of Westerners from Japan by the shogun in 1639 and the opening of the country to foreign trade in the 1850's, the only Europeans allowed in Japan were the Dutch, who were confined to the island of Deshima in Nagasaki harbor. Netsukes of foreigners can best be understood as caricatures of a national type and often are comically grotesque. Hide Masa utilized an exaggerated facial expression, a hen tucked under the man's arm and shoulder length curling hair to identify the subject as a European. This is a particularly handsome example, its details superbly executed.

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