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The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Netsuke Donation of Dr Roy Hull
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, United Kingdom, has for over one hundred years held a good sized collection of fine, interesting and unusual netsuke. Much of this collection, which numbered one hundred and sixty eight pieces, had been very kindly donated to the museum over a period from the 1900s through to 1991. But it is its latest, most generous gift in the summer of 2008 by Dr Roy Hull, of his entire collection of netsuke, together with his library, that has now increased its holdings of netsuke to over five hundred pieces.
Dr Roy Hull's kind donation contained three hundred and forty-one items, of which most were netsuke and about ten were okimono. The donation contains a wide range of themes and materials within it and covers subjects from the 18th century, through the 19th century and into the late 20th century. His collection has added a good selection of subjects to the museum's existing holdings, making it more comprehensive and complete. Here I have chosen a selection of pieces to illustrate the collection which I find of interest due to subject, rarity, workmanship and their tactile quality.
Picture 1 shows a late 18th century netsuke of Seiobo, the mythical Queen Mother of the Western Lands, holding a peach and her basket. Carved from stag antler, the unsigned netsuke has a good colour and patina and is very tactile in the hand.
Picture 2 is that of a Tokaido Road porter, Kumosuke, dancing the Sparrow Dance with great joy. The netsuke is standing in typical pose for the subject. Also unsigned, it dates to the late 18th century. The ivory has a fine colour, the back being a deep dark orange.
Picture 3 is of Fukurokuju seated and holding his fan. This piece, in stag antler, is boldly carved, but fun and very tactile in the hand. It makes great use of the natural shape of the material. This god of longevity and wealth dates to the later half of the 19th century and is unsigned.
Dr Hull's collection contains a good selection of animal subjects, both real and imaginary, with monkeys, oxen and shishi well represented. A more unusual piece, because of its bulk and power is shown in picture 4.
It is a powerful study of an eagle holding on to its own tail feathers, it head looking downwards. The netsuke is of ivory and has been carved from the centerpiece of the tusk; the small blood vessels which run through it can just be seen. It dates to the late 18th or early 19th century.
Picture 5 is a view of the back,showing the feather work and the himotoshi. The netsuke is unsigned but similar in concept to the well-known eagle and screaming monkey subject by Kaigyokusai Masatsugu. The feather work is much more deeply carved on this eagle. It is an earlier, more powerful model and of a very good size - it could be likened to a plum, filling the palm of the hand. It needs to be held to be fully appreciated as the photographs do not due it justice.
Picture 6 is a charming study of a seated dog with its left paw resting on a ball. Made of ivory, the eyes are double inlaid with light and pale horn. It is the work of Ranichi of Kyoto, pupil of Rantei. It is signed Ranichi within a torpedo-shaped wavy-line reserve and dates from the first half of the 19th century.
Picture 7 is an ivory unsigned study of a seated kirin, looking skywards, upon an oval shaped base. Of good size, it has a single hole in the centre of the base which forms the himotoshi.
Masks are also well represented in the collection, both in wood and ivory.
Picture 8 is a comical study of a yamabushi, a warrior priest. His nose is turned up and pointed, almost like a tengu beak, but this is clearly a nose. He wears on his head a tokin, or skull cap, which identifies him as a yamabushi. Made of wood, the reverse is shown in picture 9 with the signature Deme Uman, it dates to the 19th century.
Picture 10, an unsigned boxwood study of a shishi head, is very bulky and ball-like in shape, unlike many masks which tend to be more flat. The subject is more commonly found in ivory and this donation does also include and ivory example. But the boxwood is more interesting, of a wonderful deep colour with elaborately carved curls of hair and dating to the first half of the 19th century, circa 1830.
The netsuke in picture 11 was one of those examples that the more you picked it up, the better it became. The subject is Ono no Tofu in his ceremonial garments, wearing geta (wooden clogs), standing and holding his umbrella in his right hand and a folding fan in his left hand, a large frog sitting next to his left foot. It is carved of ivory and the frog's eyes are inlaid in horn. Finely carved, it dates to the late 19th century.
Another standing figure is shown in picture 12, an ivory netsuke of an old Japanese court official standing holding a brush in his right hand and a scroll in his left. Decorated in black and green lacquer, it dates to the early 20th century.
A couple of interesting wood examples within the collection are shown in picture 13, a boxwood netsuke of a Japanese official pouring sake into a silver sake bowl, which he holds in his left hand. He wears an inro to the left-hand side of his back which is inlaid in ebony and mother-of-pearl. It is signed Nagayuki and is 19th century in date. Picture 14 shows a boxwood figure of a man seated holding a mask of Okame. A shishimai mask and costume is draped over his knee with a second person's face showing inside the mask. The underside of the netsuke illustrated in picture 15 shows a good-sized himotoshi, one being ringed in ivory. It is signed Miwa with a kakihan and is probably by Miwa III and dates to the 19th century.
A good subject in painted cypress wood is that shown in pictures 16 and 17, front and back views of the Dragon Sennin standing with his dragon upon his back. The netsuke is very light in weight and dates to the late 18th century. Unsigned, it is the type and style associated with the work of Yoshimura Shuzan.
An unusual and rare subject sometimes found in netsuke is that of a severed head. In picture number 18 we have a group of seven of them, most likely executed heads of men, on a large tray. We studied this piece many times to be sure that they were not masks. It is well carved, a perfect shape for use and shows some signs of wear. Dating to the 19th century, it is unsigned and made not of ivory, as first thought, but what looks to be a choice piece of stag antler.
The collection also has a good selection of manju. The best of these is probably the one shown in pictures 19 and 20, A finely carved ryusa manju in ivory with a gold circular inlaid disc. It is decorated with various mon, or family crests. The signature reads Ho, which is probably short for Hozan and it dates to the mid-19th century. A similar ryusa manju, also by this same artist can be found in "Netsuke Subjects" by Karl M Schwartz and is number 100 on page 52.
My final selection is illustrated in pictures 21 and 22. It is an ivory netsuke in the form of a tobacco pouch with its cord and an ojime. It has a pipe and ashtray lying next to the pouch and is complete with an oni mask netsuke attached to the pouch. It is inlaid in horn and gold coloured wire with red lacquer decoration on the pouch. It dates to the late 19th century and is signed Gyokusen. An almost identical piece can be found in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection of netsuke in Oxford.
This is just a small selection chosen from Dr Roy Hull's donation. A larger selection of around one hundred and forty of the best of his gift, along with one hundred more of the best netsuke from the old collections can be seen at the Fitzwilliam Museum from Tuesday 23rd February 2010 until Sunday 30th May 2010. The netsuke on show cover three centuries and include many fine and rare works. It is a great opportunity to see the museum's best pieces up close and I would recommend it to anyone who is able to visit the exhibition.
David Louis Brown
