An Ivory Seal-Netsuke of a Performing Fox
Research presented at the 2026 INS Convention in Brussels proposes that the Insai studio, headed by Futaya Denbei, combined the production of inkan (seals) and netsuke. The name Insai itself means "seal studio." Active during the formative period of netsuke art, the studio appears to have participated in the wider commercial shift towards the adaptation of established forms to new markets, a development associated with entrepreneurial figures (merchants) such as Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694).
I further propose that Denbei helped foster the next generation of netsuke-shi through the deshi (apprenticeship) system. Under the nenki-bōkō tradition, young apprentices were brought to thriving urban centres, where they received lodging, food and craft training. The location recorded for Insai by Inaba Tsūryū in the Sōken Kishō places the studio within a prosperous commercial district of Osaka, offering access to materials, customers and parents would have competed to send their children as apprentices to such an establishment.
Insai was therefore exceptionally well positioned to flourish: its location, access to ivory and potential pool of apprentices may have enabled the studio to contribute significantly to the development and transmission of early netsuke art.
Our fine old performing fox, with rich, centuries old aji would have been cutting edge when it was made and this and other fox designs from the Insai studio form the very bedrock that the later 'professional age' studios would rely on for inspiration.
Anonymous. Insai studio (likely early period) Late 17th Century.
