A very rare wood netsuke of Botan Tôrô. Late 19th century - image-1

Lot 1191 Dα

A very rare wood netsuke of Botan Tôrô. Late 19th century

Auktion 1112 - Übersicht Köln
16.06.2018, 16:31 - The Papp Collection of Netsuke
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A very rare wood netsuke of Botan Tôrô. Late 19th century

The human skeleton with a tattered lotus leaf on its head carries a large lantern and shoulders the big head of a dragon, its horn poking through the lotus leaf. Restored.
Length 7.6 cm

This subject is based on the publication on ghosts “Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki“, written in 1779 by Toriyama Sekien, where a weird skinny woman is named “hone onna” (bone woman). The subsequent story based on the aforementioned publication is called “Botan Tôrô” (Peony Lantern) and features a woman, named O-Tsuyu.

The term “bone woman” was probably the inspiration for artists such as Hokusai to represent O-Tsuyu as a skeleton. It seems that Tametaka of Nagoya was the first to carve this macabre subject, depicting the woman as a skeleton with a lotus hat and dragon head (see MCI, p. 856).

Provenienz

Purchased from the estate of Dr. Franz Weber, Vienna, May 1961

Literaturhinweise

Illustrated in: Skelettnetsuke / Skeleton Netsuke in: Netsuke, vol. 1, no. 12 (1961), p. 5, fig. 3 and 4