Netsuke

Museum number:

9-7707

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21090007707

Alternate number:

3-12 (original number), 4-105 (original number), and 5-71 (original number)

Accession number:

Acc.2384

Description:

Netsuke in brown wood, of a woman with her hair parted in the middle, a long girdle from waist to hem of skirt, and carrying the "tide-ruling jewels." Depicts Okinaga Terasu Hime or Jingo Kooga, Empress of Japan. 5.6 cm.

Donor:

Estate of Geraldine C. and Kernan Robson

Collection place:

Japan

Culture or time period:

Japanese

Collector:

Geraldine C. Robson

Collection date:

before 1940

Materials:

Wood (plant material)

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Netsukes

Function:

2.2 Personal Adornments and Accoutrements

Accession date:

1968

Context of use:

Toggle to be attached to the end of a cord and thrust through the sash of a kimono for the support of a purse, pouch or lacquer box.

Department:

Asia (except western Russia)

Dimensions:

height 5.6 centimeters

Comment:

Per Accession File: Okinaga Terasu Hime or Jingo Kooga, Empress of Japan, often showed in company with her son, Ojin Tenno or Haniman, and, with her minister, Takenouchi no Sukune. The deities twice ordered her husband, Chiuai, to conqueror Korea, but the monarch took no heed. The deities then inspired Jingo and she transmitted the request to the Emperor, who said "There is no land to the west, these dreams are inspired by lying deities," then proceeded to drop dead. The empress was then enceinte [sic], but decided to start heself on the conquest. She stopped to fish at Matsura Gawa, with three grains of rice as bait, the catch of fish being a lucky omen. She prayed also, that if she was to succeed, her hair would part in bathing-- and it parted. All the Kami are said to have come to her aid with the exception of the Kami of the seashore, Izora, who later came clad in mud and who she sent to Riujin to borrow the tide-ruling jewels. The Korean fleet came to her and submissively offered her their country, after she had planted her lance on the door of the chieftain, Shiragi. She then came back to Japan, when Ojin, whose birth she had delayed by attaching a heacy stone to her waist, was born in the province since called Umi. She then had a meal with once of the gods, since named Aguchi, at Sakai. This all happened in 200 A.D. She is often shown writing with her bow, the words "Koku O" (Ruler of the State) upon a rock.

Legacy documentation: