A rare kurogaki (black persimmon) wood netsuke of a rat on an inkstickBy Seiyodo Tomiharu (1733-1810), Iwami Province, dated 1782The large rodent seated diagonally on a discarded, partly-used cake of ink, its tail trailing over the side, signed with ukibori characters iji Tenmei mizunoe-tora shimo[tsuki] hatsuka Sekiyo Ishikawa no nishi Seiyodo Tomiharu Seigen'an no shita ni oite chokoku mono nari (this was carved at the Seigen'an, west of the Ishi River in Sekiyo, by Seiyodo Tomiharu on the twentieth day of the eleventh month of the mizunoe-tora year of Tenmei [1782]), with two seals, Tomi and Haru. 5.6cm (2¼in).注脚黒柿彫根付　墨に鼠　銘 「于時天明壬寅霜[月]二十日石陽石河之西青陽堂富春於清源庵下彫刻者也」　1782年Published:Ducros, NS, p.94, no.190.Rokusho 20, p.11, no.11.Burditt, ICWT, p.34, figs.6-7.Earle, Huthart, p.78, no.60.For a somewhat similar example, see G. Lazarnick, NIA, p.1137.