Netsuke: a monkey trainer

1750

Netsuke carved from ivory, depicting a wandering monkey trainer, sarumawashi, with the animal on his shoulder, a bamboo stick in his hand. The monkey looks around him in a somewhat pensive and sceptical way, while his boss has an almost professional grin on his face, no doubt conceived with pleasure by the carver. The natural curved shape of the whale's head has been cleverly used. The man bends his head slightly to the left and the monkey sits above him.