215 - SHUGETSU: A WOOD NETSUKE OF ONO NO KOMACHI

SHUGETSU: A WOOD NETSUKE OF ONO NO KOMACHI By Shugetsu, signed Shugetsu 舟月 Japan, Edo (Tokyo), late 18 th to early 19 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely carved as the aged poetess Ono no Komachi seated upon a bundle of brushwood, her once-renowned beauty transformed by age and hardship. Her emaciated body is sensitively rendered with prominently exposed ribs and slender limbs, while the deeply wrinkled face bears a gentle, almost wistful expression beneath long, center-parted hair. She wears loosely draped, tattered robes falling in deeply carved folds around her body and holds a large woven sedge hat before her, its plaited surface meticulously incised. Himotoshi underneath and signed SHUGETSU. LENGTH 4 cm Condition: Very good condition with minor wear. Ono no Komachi, a waka poet from the Heian period, was one of the Rokkasen (the six best waka poets of the early Heian period) and is renowned for both her extraordinary beauty and her tragic and complex relationships with her lovers. In legends, she is often portrayed as a withering, old woman, symbolizing the impermanence of beauty and the inevitable passage of time. Literature comparison: Compare a related later wood netsuke of Ono no Komachi, by Shugetsu III, illustrated in Hurtig, Bernard (1973) Masterpieces of Netsuke Art: One Thousand Favorites of Leading Collectors, p. 178, no. 741.