Skull and snake - Chikushun (Takeharu)
circa 1910
A realistically carved wooden skull, with a snake slithering its way through the hypoglossal canal, the thickest part of its body squeezing through a hole in the cranium, then down behind the temporal bone, to re-emerge through the left eye socket.
The jagged hole in the side of the skull suggests that its ‘owner’ may have died from a trauma – perhaps pierced by a spear or arrow – on the battlefield.
Height: 6.2cm
