An assembly of pouch, ojime and netsuke, united by a fine silk cord.
Leather pouch, cleverly produced to be the face of an Oni (with glass eyes).
Ojime, Guri lacquer.
Netsuke, an antler study of a Rat on a scroll. This unusual depiction references the 3rd scene from the Kabuki play Meiboku Sendai Hagi (伽羅先代萩, めいぼくせんだいはぎ) .
A description of scene 3 is as follows:
Set below masaoka's room. A faithful retainer of Yorikane named Arajishi Otokonosuke, who was driven away from the upper floor by Yashio, mounts guard below the room of his Lord's son. He spots the rat with the scroll and hits the beast with his heavy iron fan. The rat is hurt but manages to escape. It reemerges through a trapdoor in the hanamichi in its true form as Nikki Danjô, the archvillain of Kabuki roles. Carrying the scroll in his mouth, he is preceded and followed by stage hands carrying candles and he exits the hanamichi as if walking on clouds.
The play was written by Nagawa Kamesuke I and Isojii Sosuke and staged in 1777 in Osaka. Interestingly, the rat is much in the manner of the Garaku studio, connected with Osaka in 1781 in the Soken Kisho by Inaba Tsuryu.
This set was assembled with the understanding that the villain in the play was a Rat, who was injured by an iron fan - Oni are the archvilian of netsuke-art and Oni's favourite weapon are large heavy clubs (Kanabo). Visually and symbolically we feel the set works admirably.
