λ TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE MEIJI 1868-1912 The first carved as Saigyo Hoshi sitting with his hat...

λ TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE

MEIJI 1868-1912

The first carved as Saigyo Hoshi sitting with his hat and staff on the slopes of Mount Fuji, unsigned, the other depicting a blind man holding his hypertrophied scrotum, his lifeless eye and teeth inlaid with ivory, signed Gyokkei in an ivory cartouche to the base, 5.3cm. (2)

Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part A, pp.84-85 for a biography of Gyokkei and two other examples of blind masseurs by the same carver.