Netsuke in Comparison: Motifs and Their Variations

• 100 masterpieces from a Swiss private collection

• Comparative images locate the pieces within the genre

Netsuke — classic belt decorations for men — are rooted in a historical, mythological and artistic tradition in Japanese culture. Woodcarvers and their pupils, even counterfeiters, continued the work of their role models, in copies or variants of what came before them, and even created major works of art with the small...