Project Description

Wood netsuke of Ono no Tōfu as a frog by Risuke Garaku (active 1780) 

A slender frog, wearing geta and an e-boshi, stands with a resigned expression leaning on an upturned umbrella. The eyes are inlays of dark horn

Signed on the frog’s side. Circa 1870

Height: 6.4 cm

Information: 

Fuld records three of these with Garaku signatures, two of them much larger (10.5 and 11cm). One is in J. Kurstin, ‘Netsuke; Story Carvings of Old Japan’, p. 37, where the story of the courtier Ono no Tōfu being inspired by the perseverance of a frog is told.

MR2707