101. NETSUKE EN BOIS REPRÉSENTANT UN ÉLÉPHANT ET UN KARAKO Par Tsuji, Osaka, mi-/fin du XVIIIe siècle A WOOD NETSUKE OF AN ELEPHANT AND A KARAKO (CHINESE BOY) By Tsuji, Osaka, mid/late 18th century The elephant standing, turning its head back, its exaggeratedly long trunk raised and dynamically curled into a circle at the end, the karako hoisting himself on the elephant's back covered with an elaborate caparison, holding down a large oval fan in his right hand; signed with a kao. 12.6cm (5in) high. 木彫根付　象に唐子　銘「(花押）」　18世紀中期/後期 Provenance: Purchased from Alain Ducros, December 1986. Published: Ducros, NS, pp.56, 59. Exhibited and Published: International Netsuke Society, PE, no.57. Bandini, IAN, p.77, no.146. NS19, p.75, no.127. For another example of an elephant (mounted by a Dutchman) by the artist, see Sydney L. Moss, MRN, no.28. Elephants are, of course, not native to Japan but a small number arrived as high-level gifts during the Edo period (1615-1868), most famously a pair imported from Vietnam to Nagasaki on a Chinese ship in 1728 on the orders of shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. The female soon died but the male was brought all the way to Edo (present-day Tokyo), a distance of over 1,200 km, and lived until 1743. For a contemporary illustration of this celebrated beast, see www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/73590. Images of this kind would have been a source of inspiration for Tsuji and other carvers.