Cord Concealer

When most Japanese netsuke netsuke collection of ancient truth, many cons of modern copies, will normally be two holes connecting cord (known as himotoshi), but it will be much larger than the other !

The netsuke was handling a piece that was on a rope to a compartment (Sagemono), often it was an inro (one case more compartments), which was kept closed by a wire cord (Ojima) between the inro and netsuke. The kimono has no pockets so the INRO was carried suspended from the kimono sash (obi), the netsuke was then pushed up under the belt, thus trapping and holding the Sagemono up.

The reason for the larger hole in the netsuke was once the cord has been threaded through the inro (or Sagemono) and Ojima (the netsuke was then threaded on the last) it was possible to completely hide the cord and the knot just inside the larger hole.

So how small hole connected to the larger hole was very well trained, providing a link curve and smooth, easy to thread the cord through. Often, the biggest hole was dug even more under the surface, to provide plenty of space for the node.

The Manju, often used in place of a netsuke, was also a lot of space to hide the knot in the opening two sections.

In my personal view, although there were very fine netsuke be threaded through a tail or a leg, instead of the usual himotoshi, then it was quite a disadvantage in use, as there was any way to hide the knot of the cord.

Another important factor is the position himotoshi, they were always placed so that as the cord hangs the netsuke sculpture is nicely presented in the right direction. But, these holes cord were also placed so they do not affect any detailed carvings.

Many poor later netsuke (these were never used, but they were really just cash on the growing value of netsuke) are often easy to spot. Inspection of a netsuke holes if both are equal in size and poorly trained (often these are only two holes drilled at an angle to meet the other) then you can be sure this is not a good netsuke !

Unfortunately we can no longer rely solely himotoshi to try to identify a modern copy, as some do now have smaller holes and larger, in particular copies of recent resin netsuke.