This
adorable fisherman is harvesting his catch of the day; with one foot slightly
forward, another stands on front toes, he is dressed handsomely in a tightly scrimshaw
robe with various design patterns, and in his right he has a squid flung over
his shoulder, while his left hand is pulling another squid out from the basket.
The
immense charms of this okimono characterizes the work of famous 19th century netsuke
artist Gyokusai. Though that little is known of his life, and there are supposedly
very few of his carvings found in either Japan or in Western collections. Since
Gyokusai is one of the most important netsuke artist, we carefully compared the
signature of this carving to other records, and can only attribute the signature
to an artist of the same name. Thus the case for genuineness of this okimono rest
solely on connoisseurship and attribution.
