Japanese Carved Netsuke 19th Cent. A Noh Mask of Usobuki by Deme Joman ~ copy

Description

Japanese Carved Netsuke: 19th Century Carving of A Noh Mask of Usobuki by Deme Joman - replica. His lips pursed as if blowing. His eyes cast downward. A wide pronounced nose. Nice detail.
In the 1950s, my grandfather became enamored of Japanese Netsuke. He acquired the book: Netsuke – A Miniature Art of Japan Tourist Library Vol. 14 by Yuzuru Okada Japan Travel Bureau, Tokyo (1951).  In 1960 through Evelyn and Louis Balistocky of Post Cigar Company Inc. located in Upper Darby, PA he commissioned 129 reproductions of the netsukes depicted in the book.
Balistocky contacted Raymond Bushell of Bushell and Asahina, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law in Tokyo. Through them they arranged to hire several contemporary carvers to create the reproductions. We know from correspondence both Sousi and Ichiro were two of the carvers that made many of the items, but cannot attribute specific pieces to them. The contemporary carvers were not to put their signatures, but the original carver’s signature as it appeared on the master held by the Tokyo National Museum.
By 1963 the 129 pieces were completed and appeared in an exhibit of arts and crafts of many countries of the Orient at the Commercial Museum of Philadelphia in 1964. Copies of correspondence regarding the acquisition of these reproductions is available.
This Netsuke is No. 70 in the book. A Noh Mask of Usobuki by Deme Joman. [1.5 inches high]