Meizan

Meiji period, 19th century

1868-1912

Handle

A beautifully carved bone handle of three toads on a branch. A large warty toad with black coral eyes stands atop the branch looking down upon a smaller toad while another crawls up the back.

The handle is carved out of what seems to be a femur or shin bone, most likely a dear bone. The ball joint makes a perfect shape to carve the head of the handle to fit the hand beautifully. This would have been carved to be used on items like a walking stick or parasol.

It is signed on the lower part by the artist Meizan. There are known netsuke with this signature but nothing is known about the artist.

Signed Meizan

235mm x 30mm