| Transcript |
- With the end of the feudal Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji
period (1868-1912), Western dress with plenty of pockets came to be 53
adopted by the Japanese in place of the traditional kimono, and as a
result, netsuke lost their relevance, causing them to disappear as fashion
accessories for daily use. Whole heirloom treasure chests of netsuke were
set aside by Japanese families as outdated relics. European and American
traders immediately recognized netsuke as marvellous examples of
art in miniature and began to collect them by the boxfuls. Despite the
decline in use of kimono and netsuke, the foreign demand for the prized
netsuke kept the industry flourishing. The export boom allowed the
livelihood of the netsuke artists to prosper and survive for several more
decades. As a result, huge private and museum collections were built up
in Holland, England, France and the United States. In fact, because of
the Japanese indifference towards netsuke, many of the finest ancient
netsuke collections are outside of Japan. Most of the netsuke made
from the early Meiji period onwards were never used and were simply
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