An ivory netsuke of a seated monkey By Ohara Mitsuhiro (1810-1875), Osaka, mid 19th century
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Find your local specialistAn ivory netsuke of a seated monkey
Curled in a ball and restraining itself by covering its eyes, ears and mouth, to imitate the sambiki saru, the ivory slightly-worn and of a good colour, signed Mitsuhiro with seal Ohara. 3.1cm (1¼in).
Footnotes
象牙彫根付 見立三猿 銘「光廣」「大原（方印）」 19世紀中期
Published: Rosemary Bandini, ibid., p.91, no.129.
The sambiki saru (three mystic apes) is a popular subject in Japanese art and was used as a subject by Kaigyokusai and other carvers from Osaka. Other examples by Mitsuhiro are in the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, illustrated in Takarabukuro by Ohara Mitsuhiro, p.46, no.52; and in The Baur collection, Geneva, illustrated by Martin Newstead and Marie-Thérèse Coullery, ibid., no.C1049.
The Takarabukuro (Treasure bag) is a notebook compiled by Ohara Mitsuhiro which listed over two hundred and fifty netsuke which he had made or was thinking of making, many of them identifiable with recorded examples. The book was in the possession of Raymond Bushell and, following his death in 2000, his widow Frances Bushell commissioned a translated publication of it, incorporating photographs of identifiable netsuke. The translation was completed by Eichi Fukuda, Katsuhide Akabane and Masanori Watanabe and the book was adapted for publication by Charles R. Temple in 2001.
This lot can be identified in the adapted book, no. 52, described as: Koshin-saru. The monkey covers its mouth with its left hand, both eyes with its right hand, and both ears with its legs. One monkey acts all the parts.
