Ebony menuki.

[bluboxer]

Greetings,

I have happened upon some unusual ebony menuki. The carving seems to be very clean and symmetric. I thought at first they were made of black plastic until I cleaned them up a little and looked closer.They are 50mm long.

A question I have is why do we not see more wooden menuki? Were they too fragile for the application?

All comments and insights are most welcome.

[watsonmil]

Allan,

Although ebony is an exception, ... few other woods offer the coloration desired for menuki. Most woods have a tendency to swell and/or dry out ( leading to cracking ) which would be another reason for the lack of wooden menuki, ... again ebony being an exception. Ebony would have been a fairly exotic wood in Japan, ... and therefore along with it's being a very dense BLACK colored wood which is capable of taking and retaining a high polish would be an exception to most other species of wood for the manufacture of menuki. Just a few thoughts which come to mind. By the way, ... I think the set you have acquired are quite well executed, and being made of wood quite rare. Congratulations.

... Ron Watson

[b.hennick]

Boris of Yamabushi has a pair for sale. At least he had them the last time I checked. His are the "long life" turtles.

[Rich T]

Not cempletely uncommon, I believe these items were made for the tourist trade in the Bakamatsu period and later. I have an interesting maki-e kozuka. I would guess this to be a late Bakamatsu or Meiji piece. The work is quite nice, the detail good, though I suspect it was made as an export piece.

 

There are also of course several sets of same coated fittings about as well. I doubt myself any self repecting samurai would want to wear these types of kodogu, however, things were pretty grim in the Bakamatsu period so who really knows for sure.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[bluboxer]

Hi Ron, yes I see the limitations of wooden menuki.Soft metals are more suited to the purpose.

Perhaps if ebony had been available in any quantities earlier than the Bakumatsu times (thanks Rich) we would see more examples.

I checked out the set you mentioned Barry.They are in pretty rough shape tho.Carving is not near as good either or they are terribly worn.

Thanks for the replies,