This Beautiful 19th century stag antler tsutsu depicts a flying bird over pine tree and clouds in carved through motif, along with an ojimi of an oni drumming a mokogyo (Buddhist musical instument), and a leather tobacco pouch with spirited shishi lion made of copper. The pipecase is deeply incised in bold strokes. The design of the ojimi is tactile in round, depicting a boyish oni in a well arranged composition, completed with stone inlaids for the budding horns. Both of the stag antler and ojimi are beautifully polished, with an original aged gold cream patina and a even shine to the piece. There is a couple of hairlines on the pipe case, it has no cracks or losses.

The Japanese pipe case was used along with a tobacco box or pouch. It was made to hold the kiseru, a long stemmed and tiny bowl pipe that holds no more than three-puffs of tobacco. The pipe case is called "tsutsu" in common language. Similar to the inro, it is suspended by the same combination of silk cord and ojime. Concurrent with netsuke, tsutsu were in use during the Tokugawa, until Meiji and early Showa period. At first they were favored by common peasants, then gradually increasing numbers of samurai and aristocrats began to wear the elegantly crafted tsutsu, thus indirectly contributed to the diminishing use of netsuke.