Ɏ KOCHO: AN IVORY NETSUKE OF THE SANSUKUMI By Kocho, signed Kocho Japan, late 19th century, Meiji period (1868-1912) Published: Meinertzhagen, Frederick / Lazarnick, George (1986) MCI, Part A, p. 350 (not illustrated) Finely carved, depicting the sansukumi gathered on a cavernous rock, the toad sitting on the far side grasping the snail which emerges from under a leafy rock, the snake carved to the opposite end, lifting its head subtly. Two irregularly shaped himotoshi to the flattened, polished underside. Signed to the base KOCHO. LENGTH 4.6 cm Condition: Very good condition with minor wear. Provenance: Glendining’s London, 6 March 1951. Collection of Günter Kauth, acquired from the above. Lempertz Cologne, 25 June 2021, lot 867. German private collection, acquired from the above. The combination of snake, frog, and snail (or slug) constitutes the sansukumi motif. Sansukumi translates to ‘the three who are afraid of one another’. The three animals are in a state of mutually assured destruction: the snake will consume the frog, however the frog has already eaten a poisonous snail, so the snake must perish as well. This motif is connected to sansukumi-ken, a category of Japanese hand games played by using three hand gestures. The oldest sansukumi-ken game is mushi-ken, a game originally from China. In mushi-ken, the ‘frog’ represented by the thumb wins against the ‘slug’ represented by the pinkie finger, which, in turn defeats the ‘snake’ represented by the index finger, which wins against the ‘frog’. Although this game was imported from China, the Japanese version differs in the animals represented. In adopting the game, the original Chinese characters for centipede or millipede were apparently confused with the characters for the ‘slug’. The centipede was chosen because of the Chinese belief that the centipede was capable of killing a snake by climbing and entering its head. One of the few surviving sansukumi-ken games is jan-ken, which was brought to the West in the 20th century as rock paper scissors. This item contains ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, and/or some types of tropical wood and is subject to CITES when exporting outside the EU. It is typically not possible to export such items outside of the EU, including to the UK. Therefore, after this item has the necessary trade certificate, it can only be shipped within the EU or picked up in our gallery in person.