


A wood netsuke of Kappa By Toyoyo (Toyoyasu or Hidari Toyomasa, 1811-1883), Tanba, 19th century
Sold for £17,500 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Private & Iconic Collections and House Sales specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistA wood netsuke of Kappa
Seated on the shell of a large tortoise and looking around to the left with an alert expression, the wood slightly-worn and bearing a good patina, signed in a rounded rectangular reserve Toyoyasu. 4.5cm (1¾in).
Footnotes
木彫根付 亀に河童 銘「豊容」 19世紀
Published: Rosemary Bandini, ibid., p.26, no.40.
Compare an example by Toyomasa illustrated in The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke, a Legacy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2003, no.248.
For similar examples by Masakazu and Masasada of Tanba, see Barbra Teri Okada and Mary Gardner Neill, Real and Imaginary Beings, Yale University Art Gallery, 1980, p.101, nos. 100 and 101. Another is illustrated by George Lazarnick, ibid., p.708.
Toyoyo was the son of Naito Toyomasa I. As discussed in the article, Naito Toyomasa, Part II, by Kazutoyo Ichimichi, in The International Netsuke Society Journal, vol.21, no.1, the pronunciation of the name Toyoyasu would be discourteous to Lord Tadayasu of the Sasayama clan; the proper pronunciation would be Toyoyo.