Project Description
Heavily Stained Ivory Manju Netsuke of a Turtle by Bunzan
Parlty covered by a maple and ginkgo leaf
Signed on a gourd beneath. Asakusa. Circa 1870
Diameter: 4.1 cm
Information:
The artist is extremely obscure, but the few of his works which are known are so close to Masayuki, that one may assume that he worked with him, or that the name is simply an alternative art name of Masayuki. Four known works with his signature are in stag antler and include three netsuke: a zoomorphic ewer (British Museum, Hull Grundy book, no. 534), a frog in curled lotus leaf (Lazarnick, NIA, p. 324) and a crab (Moss, ‘Kokusai the Genius’, vol. III, no. 554). I would suggest that a pipe case carved in relief with a merman is also by him (Moss, ‘They are all fire and every one doth shine’, no. 71)
MR3291
