Unsigned

A wood netsuke of a dog-like creature seated on its haunches in a begging position, looking upwards with narrowed eyes. Its plump paws hang loosely by its swollen stomach and soft ears fall back against its head. It has been identified as a tanuki, though it lacks the animal’s characteristically large scrotum. It might in fact be intended for a yamabiko, a yokai illustrated in Toriyama Sekien’s illustrated encyclopaedia of goblins and ghostly apparitions.

Unsigned
Height: 5.0cm

Yoda, Hiroko; Alt, Matt (2017). Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien. pp. viii–ix.