Egawa Sokoku (b. 1920)
Tokyo, circa 1935
Daruma reclines on his side, his head propped in his cupped left hand and one knee raised as he reads the pages of a salacious novel. His hossu (fly whisk) is discarded beneath him, the long hairs swirling to form the himotoshi openings. Unusually, his expression is one of great delight.
Bushell (Collectors’ Netsuke) records that Sokoku was one of the four pupils of Morita Soko, but that he abandoned carving in favour of a business career at the outbreak of World War II. For this reason his work is very scarce.
