Netsuke are small Japanese toggles, typically carved from ivory or wood, used to secure a medicine box or tobacco pouch to the sash of a kimono — functional objects that were also vehicles for extraordinary artistry. Made from the seventeenth century onwards by specialist craftsmen, they depict animals, mythological figures, scenes from daily life, and objects of all kinds, often with a wit and observation that belies their small scale. The hare was a common subject: a creature associated in Japanese folklore with the moon, longevity, and good fortune.
The collection of 264 netsuke described in Edmund de Waal's memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) followed the dispersal and reassembly of a family collection through five generations across Paris, Vienna, and Tokyo — the netsuke surviving wars, displacement, and loss as the larger world around them shifted beyond recognition. De Waal inherited the collection from his great-uncle Iggie, and the book that resulted is both a history of objects and a meditation on what it means for beautiful things to persist.
Fine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.
