Animal groups have always been a common subject in Netsuke, whether it be a battle between rivals, groupings of zodiac signs or other symbolic or thematic groupings. One that I’ve always loved is that of the animal family. From back in the 18 century, Kyoto artist Tomotada carved subjects like shishi with their young or cows with their calf. Family groups cover a wide range of animals such as hens with chicks, dogs with pups, turtles with their young, tigers and cubs, monkeys with their young and horse with foul and many more.  

Over the last few years, I’ve also been making work based on this theme. Most recently, and possibly for the first time in the history of netsuke, I carved a Tasmanian Devil mother with her two pups playing at her feet, as seen in the image above. It is 4.5cm long and carved from boxwood, which I stained, and then inlaid the eyes made from water-buffalo horn.