A JAPANESE WOVEN BAMBOO TONKOTSU BY TABABE CHIKUUNSAI (1877-1937)

A JAPANESE WOVEN BAMBOO TONKOTSU BY TABABE CHIKUUNSAI (1877-1937)
MEIJI OR LATER, 19TH/20TH CENTURY

The tobacco box made of bamboo strips woven in various patterns, some stained and lacquered in red and gold, the base signed Chikuunsai zo, attached to a netsuke also made of woven bamboo with an inner ball and a bell inside; together with a wood netsuke carved as a cluster of mushrooms and a stag antler ojime modelled as a fugu fish, 9.9cm max. (3)

Provenance: from the collection of Dr Richard Brown, and thence by descent.

Dr. Richard F. Brown (1898-1963) was a Canadian Anglican missionary doctor who served in China, most notably at St. Paul's Hospital in Henan, starting around 1930. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he became a field doctor, providing urgent medical aid near the front lines and famously collaborating with fellow Canadian Dr. Norman Bethune in 1938 to treat wounded soldiers.