Japanese netsuke are elaborately detailed figurines. Measuring around 3–5 centimeters in length, they have been described as “small universes in the palm of the hand” for their intricacy. Netsuke ...

Netsuke are those darling carved toggles that appear to hang as decorations from obi but actually have a very practical role in the traditional dress ensemble. Since traditional Japanese garments have ...

Netsuke are very small. Smaller than a matchbox, often as small as the joint of my little-finger, these Japanese ivory, bone and wooden carvings are hard explosions of exactitude. You roll them in ...

Japanese carved figurines, called netsuke, weren’t just cool works of art — they served a practical purpose as wardrobe accessories. A well-dressed Japanese man prior to the twentieth century could ...

Inada Ichiro (Japanese, 1891-1979) was an important 20th century netsuke artist. For centuries, the Japanese have used miniature sculptures hung by cords from the sash of their traditional garments ...

Which zodiac are you? Dr Ai Fukunaga, Curator of East Asian Collections at the Chester Beatty introduces a fascinating new exhibition at the much-loved Dublin museum. The twelve zodiac animals—rat, ox ...

Reclining goat by Kaigyokusai Masatsugu (late 1800s), ivory with eyes inlaid in coral and dark horn pupils, Osaka, Japan (courtesy British Museum, gift of Professor John and Mr.s Anne Hull Grundy, all ...

Netsuke are Japanese ornaments no bigger than a matchbox, finely detailed, light but tough, carved in wood and ivory. Their subjects are wide-ranging and unexpected. Animals, of course: a brindled ...

In the hands of Japanese netsuke carvers like Ryushi Komada, something quite mundane becomes sublime. From a simple block of wood emerges a delicate and expressive face, the sense of movement in the ...