"Netsuke - Kappa Au Concombre - Bois Et Os"
Wooden Katabori netsuke depicting a seated kappa greedily holding a cucumber.The eyes are inlaid with blond and brown horn, and the cheeks are inlaid with bone. The cucumber is made of stained bone.
In popular Japanese belief, this mischievous aquatic yokai was known to kidnap young children playing in the water and devour them. He could only be removed by offering a cucumber, as this is the only food he prefers to human flesh.
Signed below the base Naoto.
Japan, late Edo period.
Patina of use.
Dimensions:
Height: 3.6 cm
Width: 2,7 cm
Depth: 2.8 cm
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