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Friday Slide Show: Netsuke
14 March 2025
We have always been besotted by scrimshaw and netsuke. Scrimshaw is not easily enjoyed or acquired these days but affordable netsuke reproductions can sometimes be found in art museums and gift shops around here. That's where this one came from.
It's not ours. It's Joyce's. As time was slipping by to come up with a subject for a slide show, we slipped into her office and saw this delightful carving to knot the slippage.
It's quite small, which may not be obvious from the macro photos.
Like other netsuke, it's a button. More or less. We won't dive into its original function for the Japanese because it's obscure to us. It was something like a knot at the end of a string attached to a container of some kind that served as a pocket. The netsuke end of the string slipped through a belt and the netsuke at the end could not slip by down through the belt, holding the container securely like a knot. We think.
They are small things and invite embellishment. The Japanese would carve them into elaborate figures, like this one, and other shapes.
This one, though, is a scream.
It depicts the Three Wise Monkeys embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
We were surprised to find the monkeys have names:
- Mizaru "does not see," his eyes conveniently covered
- Kikazaru "does not hear," his ears covered by his hands
- Iwazaru "does not speak," his mouth silenced with a hand
In fact, all three virtues are accomplished with the hands. Which prevents them from being idle and, therefore, the devil's playthings.
The proverbial principle, however, is not entirely clear. Is it an admonishment to simply avoid evil thoughts and deeds? Or is it an invitation to turn a blind eye?
I bought it for Joyce in 2002 at a little corner shop, long gone, called Worden's on Clement St. The owner shed a little light on the mystery.
"Lots of symbolism in this," he noted as he wrapped it up.
And, in fact, in 2018, three Rochester relatives added their own symbolism to the proverb. Johnny, Mike (his father) and George (the master framer and brother-in-law) posed spontaneously on the steps of Whit and Steve's home.
We haven't thought of them the same since.
