Death
is perhaps the deepest alchemy. There is playful interpretive aspect to this netsuke
skull, an imaginative anatomy that dates this ivory from the 18th century. Under
the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867) Japan practiced sakoku an isolationist policy
that fostered limited foreign contact. It wasn't until the Mejii period when Japan
was opened up to foreign influence and thought that we begin to see more realistic
anatomical depictions in Japanese ivory carving.
This
ivory netsuke skull in contrast has a playful surrealist quality. The eye sockets
are asymmetrical, cavernous and of two different sizes. The cavity where the nose
would lie is almost birdlike. The teeth are defined but irregular, suggesting
a whimsical ruffian's dental hygiene. The ears are indicated by loosely etched
crescent moons and the shape of the skull suggests a warrior's helmet. There is
an ivory plug both on the top and bottom of the skull that at one time would have
twisted out so that the interior of the skull could serve as a miniature container.
In Japan, symbolically, the skull was considered a good luck charm for gamblers
and ruffians, those who played on the edges of fortune and society. This netsuke's
himotoshi are indicated through a hole in the bottom and two in the teeth.
