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- Selected Bibliography
Barker, Richard and Lawrence Smith. netsuke, The Miniature Sculptures of Japan. London, 1976.
inro. Like netsuke, it could be fashioned of many materials, with various metals, gold, stone, ivory and wood being among the most popular; and it also incorporated designs of myth, tradition and nature, but because of its limited size and shape, it was destined to have much less detail and appeal.
Bushell, Raymond. Collectors' netsuke. Tokyo, 1971.
Davey, Neil K. netsuke. London, 1973.
Kotier, Philip. "Judging Quality in netsuke." Arts of Asia. Vol. 6, No. 2,
1976.
Okada, Barbra Teri. netsuke, Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1982.
O'Brien, Mary Louise, netsuke, Guide for Collectors. Ruthland and Tokyo, 1973.
Olson, Eleanor. "A Panorama in Miniature: Japanese netsuke". The Museum. Vol. 9, No. 4, 1957.
Roth, Stig. netsuke in the Collections of the R�hss Museum of Arts and Crafts. G�teborg, 1970.
Ryerson, Egerton. The netsuke of Japan, Legends, JListory, Folklore and Customs. London, 1958.
Stern, Harold P. The Magnificent Three: Lacquer, netsuke, and Tsuba, Selections from the Collection of Charles A.
Greenfield. London, 1972.
lleda, Reikichi. The netsuke Handbook of Ueda Reikichi, adapted from Japanese by Raymond Bushell. Tokyo, 1961.
Webb, Glenn T. Masterworks in Miniature: Japanese netsuke. Vancouver, 1967.
Yoshiko, Kakudo. netsuke: Myth and Nature in Miniature. San Francisco, 1981.
Inro (meaning personal seal case) are small interlocking, tightly fitted cases. It is said that the samurai class were the first to wear inro, and they were a popular item with them. Eventually, however, prosperous members of other classes also began wearing them. The multi�compartments (usually two to five in number, precisely slot into one another) were used to carry small ink seals, medicinal powders and pills, and aromatic conserves. The inro were flat, rectangular or round in shape, consisting of four or five horizontal compartments, held together by cords that ran through the ends of each compartment.
Like the netsuke and ojime, the tiered inro cases could be made of a variety of different materials, but by far the most popular was cypress wood covered with lacquer. Lacquer, a sap from a lacquer tree, was applied in layers (some say as many as sixty layers) to the cypress core, allowed to dry and then polished to bring out the gloss. To create different colours and textures on fine pieces, lacquer artists used a decoration technique called maki-e, which involved sprinkling a variety of metal powders including gold, silver, copper, brass, lead, aluminum, platinum, pewter, as well as their alloys, onto the lacquer surface before it dried. A decorator might lavishly apply an outer decoration with different coloured lacquer or make use of applique of different materials like mother-of-pearl, ivory, tortoiseshell and coral. Some inro were masterpieces of the lacquer craft, which could be afforded only by the wealthier samurai and later, wealthy merchants. Whereas netsuke were usually three-dimensional sculptures, inro were more like two- dimensional designs sometimes borrowed from classical literature, paintings or woodblock prints. Some of the exquisite decorations on inro are spectacular examples of Japan's finest lacquer workmanship. Like netsuke, they are also highly collectible.
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