This
adorable fisherman is harvesting his catch of the day; with
one foot slightly forward, another stands on front toes, he
is dressed handsomely in a tightly scrimshaw robe with various
design patterns, and in his right he has a squid flung over
his shoulder, while his left hand is pulling another squid
out from the basket.
The
immense charms of this okimono characterizes the work of famous
19th century netsuke artist Gyokusai. Though that little is
known of his life, and there are supposedly very few of his
carvings found in either Japan or in Western collections.
Since Gyokusai is one of the most important netsuke artist,
we carefully compared the signature of this carving to other
records, and can only attribute the signature to an artist
of the same name. Thus the case for genuineness of this okimono
rest solely on connoisseurship and attribution.
