Project Description

Wood netsuke of a shishi by Naito Toyomasa (Tamba, 1773-1856)

Standing with its front paws on a large spherical egg from which emerges a newborn pup, both animals with eyes of mid-toned horn, drilled with pupils. The adult has a loose ball in its mouth

Signed: Toyomasa.  Sasayama, circa 1840

Height: 4.2 cm

Provenance: 

Sotheby’s London, 12th June 1986, lot 285

Harriet Szechenyi collection

Her sale at Bonhams London, 8th November 2011, lot 31

Private collection, Russia

Exhibited: 

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, ‘Netsuke, Japanese Miniature Sculptures from Private Collections’, July-October 2016,no. 10 in the catalogue

Literature:

Rosemary Bandini, ‘Shishi and other Netsuke’, 1999, p. 16, no. 22

MR2635