A boar-tusk netsuke with a spiderBy Seiyodo Tomiharu (1733-1810), Iwami Province, dated 1787
Carved in high relief with a crawling spider, its legs undercut, with details added in sumi (black ink); signed Nihon San'indo Sekiyo Enokawa Seiyodo Shi Tomiharu kyonen gojuyugosai shite kore o chokoku toki ni Tenmei, hinoto hitsuji mutsuki juyuyokka nari (carved by Seiyodo Shi[mizu] Tomiharu by the Eno River in Iwami Province, in the San'indo region of Japan at the age of fifty-five on the 14th day of the first month of the hinoto-hitsuji year of Tenmei [1787]) with seals Kotobuki, Tomiharu and Seiyo(?). 8.9cm (3½in).注脚猪牙彫根付　蜘蛛　銘 「日本山陰道石陽可愛河青陽堂清富春享年五十有五歳而彫刻之于時天明丁未睦月十有四日也」　1787年

Provenance:
W. W. Winkworth Collection.
M. T. Hindson Collection.

Published:
Davey, MTH, p.247, no.763.
Lazarnick, NIA, p.1140.
Burditt, ICWT, p.33, figs.2-3.
Rokusho 20, p.4, no.1.
Earle, Huthart, p.26, no.6.