Nagoya, circa 1860, signed

Perhaps its imagination, but the monkey looks to be getting pleasure at cost of the octopus, causing it to react, using all its tentacles to defend itself.

Height: 3.7 cm

Provenance:
- Private collection, USA
- Sagemonoya, Tokyo
- Private Collection, France (consigned to Max Rutherston ltd.)

Literature:
- Yukari Yoshida, The 2009 New York Sans Ivoire Netsuke & Sagemono selection, p. 32, no. 79
- G. Wilhelm’s comments in the paid editorial for the Sagemonoya exhibition, INSJ, 19/3, p. 66 (ill.)