An antique okimono in pale to golden color, strongly marked with grain, deeply colored in the crevices. A boy stands over a bear cub which he has pinned under his axe. Well carved and detailed, with incised strokes of hair and fur, flowing fabric with embroideries. Intricately modeled and undercut, the work is made from a single piece of ivory.

Bear hunting in Japan is popular sport that goes back to the Ainu bear culture. The Ainu are a Japanese people living in the north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands and the island of Sakhalin, whose spiritual practices revolve around the sacrifice of a bear captured as a cub and raised as a pet until it is sacrificed in a ritual involving the entire group. For a boy on a hunt there could be no greater triumph than to capture a bear cub.