ASIAN  ART

MY PRIVATE COLLECTION

OKIMONO

An "okimono" is a small, carved ivory object created specifically for display. Typically "okimono" depict domestic scenes like family groups, farmers, fishermen, and children, or studies of birds, animals and flowers. Okimono were often presented in the "tokonoma", an interior alcove or recess in Japanese homes for the display of pictures or decorative art objects. During the Meiji period (1868-1912), many "okimono" were carved explicitly for export to the west.

Okimono "Geisha and a skeleton"

Hotei Okimono

Miniature Japanese Ivory

Okimono of God Fukurokuju

Shishi Netsuke

Okimono Aristocratic

"Lady with the Child"

Okimono

"Chinnan and the Dragon"

NETSUKE

Netsuke emerged as a practical solution to dressing in 17th-century Japan. 'Men's kimonos didn't have sewn-up sleeves — they were completely open, front and back, and that meant that the sleeves couldn't be used as a pocket, as they could in women's kimonos,' Goodall explains.

​

Meiji Period Bronze Night Guard

Shibayama Silver Bowl

Silver Vase

Shibayama pair of vases

on a wooden bases

A pair of silver Shibayama vase

Shibayama pair of vases

"Dragons" and "Eagle with dragons"

OTHER CARVINGS

To carry things suchas tobacco, medicine or other necessities, men hung stylish inro and other vessels from cords looped under and behind the wide sashes that held their kimonos in place. At the other end of those cords, men fastened small, ornamental objects as counterweights; those objects evolved into netsuke.

Bronze Dish

"The Goddess of Mercy"

Shibayama Plate

"Heron amidst the flowers"

Bronze Dish

"Dragon in the sky"

Japanese netsuke mask

"Shibata Shinsai"