Netsuke, toggle of ivory, Fyfe Collection

Netsuke made of ivory carved into a ball of five boys imitating acrobats. A netsuke is used to fasten an inro, a small lacquered container, which hung from the sash of a man's kimono. They became miniature art forms in their own right.

This netsuke depicts five boys, actors or acrobats, crawling on one another to form a rounded shape with a flat base. Several hold toys on sticks and three masks are worked into the base of the piece where two himetoshi, holes for the cord are located.

The netsuke was given to the museum as noted within a collection of 625 making up the Fyfe collection.

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