Netsuke, toggle of ivory (detail)

This netsuke made of ivory is carved into a ball of comic masks. 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 detail of a netsuke of a ball of masks shows the mask of Okame, an old woman whose comic dance tempted the sun goddess, Amaterasu, out of her cave in early Japanese mythology. The himetoshi, holes for passing the cord through are both in the base.

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