An
antique okimono in pale to golden color, strongly marked with grain, deeply colored
in the crevices. A boy stands over a bear cub which he has pinned under his axe.
Well carved and detailed, with incised strokes of hair and fur, flowing fabric
with embroideries. Intricately modeled and undercut, the work is made from a single
piece of ivory.
Bear
hunting in Japan is popular sport that goes back to the Ainu bear culture. The
Ainu are a Japanese people living in the north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido,
the Kuril Islands and the island of Sakhalin, whose spiritual practices revolve
around the sacrifice of a bear captured as a cub and raised as a pet until it
is sacrificed in a ritual involving the entire group. For a boy on a hunt there
could be no greater triumph than to capture a bear cub.
