Contemporary Wood-Carved Netsuke

As kimono culture flourished during the Edo period (1603-1868), netsuke, small carvings, were created as toggles to hold pouches and cases containing tobacco and medicine in place on the obi sash worn with the kimono. What began as functional pieces to prevent those little suspended containers from falling to the ground evolved into small but highly creative carvings. Today, classic netsuke have gained international acclaim as remarkably detailed carvings. Contemporary netsuke incorporating new subject matter and approaches have also been attracting attention. This traveling exhibition showcases contemporary netsuke carved of wood by living netsuke carvers in Japan, plus netsuke created by contemporary artists such as Izumi Kato. It also includes wooden netsuke that visitors may touch. Through this exhibition, visitors will appreciate the sophisticated skills and playful minds behind contemporary netsuke as well as its formal beauty and contemporaneity.

Exhibition Adviser
Taishu Komatsu (Director of Eisei Bunko Museum）

Committee member
Bishu Saito (First Chairperson of International Netsuke Carvers' Association)
Yuushi Tanida（Chief Curator of the Tobacco and Salt Museum）
Masanori Watanabe（Former President of the Japan Netsuke Society）
Masanobu Ito（Former Managing Director, Arts and Culture Department, The Japan Foundation）

Contemporary netsuke carvers and artists
[Contemporary Netsuke]
Tomoe Ikeda, Takeshi Inoue, Muhou Ishii, Tadatsuna Ito, Tomoyuki Iwata, Mansei Uehara, Zanmai Onosato, Shion Omagari, Mitsukuni Kagami, Asuka Kajiura, Rumine Kandachi, Ryo Kitazumi, Dosai Kudo, Motomasa Kurita, Akira Kuroiwa, Ryushi Komada, Masahiro Saito, Bishu Saito, Masami Sakai, Hideyuki Sakurai, Kouen Sawai, Rin Suzuki, Bokusen Takagi, Toshiki Tanaka, Tetsumi Dannohara, Yuzan Tatara, Shokou Terato, Douho Michiura, Mabu Nakakaji, Tadamine Nakagawa, Tohei Nakagawa, Hiroaki Nakanishi, Shinya Nagashima, Taisei Nakahata, Kazuaki Nakamura, Koma Hitomi, TanetoshiI Hiraga, Kazu Shogen, Yoka Mukaida, Mokuchu Yatsugi, Mushu Yamazaki, Yoji Yamada

[Contemporary Art]
Rieko Otake, Izumi Kato, Koji Tanada, Yoshimasa Tsuchiya

Logo of Contemporary Wood-Carved Netsuke

Promotional video

2024 first semester Mexico *TBC
2023 Canada *TBC
January 20 - May 14, 2023
Oriental Museum, Durham University (Durham, U.K.)
November 13 - December 3, 2022
History of Science Centre, GUtech (Muscat, Oman)
August 5 - October 2, 2022
Slovak National Museum (Bratislava, Slovakia)
July 4 - 24, 2022
National Art Gallery (Dakar, Senegal)
December 4 - December 29, 2021
HUA CUI ART CENTER (Shanghai, China)
November 4 - November 24, 2021
Jilin Provincial Arts and Crafts Museum (Changchun, Jilin Province, China)
August 27 - September 17, 2021
Gallery Central (Perth, Australia)
July 9 - August 6, 2021
Bunbury Regional Gallery (Bunbury, Australia)
June 4 - 26, 2021
The Japan Foundation, Sydney (Sydney, Australia)