May 10, 2023
Netsuke are miniature sculptures originating in 17th-century Japan. These are just four quirky examples that caught our eye, but you can find nearly 4,000 open images on JSTOR of these beautiful objects.
PS The second image is of Tanuki, a mischievous raccoon dog in Japanese mythology commonly associated with excessive drinking and gluttony. This ivory netsuke depicts Tanuki carrying, um, his grossly enlarged scrotum.
The three images with black backgrounds come from the Wellcome Collection and the white one is from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, two open access collections on JSTOR.
