48. NETSUKE EN BOIS REPRÉSENTANT UN TSUKUMO-GAMI ('OBJET POSSÉDÉ') Par Shugetsu, fin du XVIIIe/début du XIXe siècle A WOOD NETSUKE OF A TSUKUMO-GAMI ('POSSESSED OBJECT') By Shugetsu, late 18th/early 19th century A grotesque figure emerging from a tarai (wood basin) that still remains stuck to its exaggeratedly large head, standing upright on a pair of stumpy legs, one hand raised to its forehead, the other at its side, its long tongue curling out of its gaping mouth up towards its nose, one eye inlaid in horn, the other a large glass orb; signed on the reverse Shugetsu. 5.2cm (2in) high. 木彫根付　付喪神　銘「舟月」　18世紀後期/19世紀前期 Provenance: W. Guest Collection, no.1182. Claude Watney Collection. M. T. Hindson Collection. Sold at Sotheby's, London, 26 June 1967, lot 44. Emile Veranneman Collection. Purchased from Eskenazi, London, July 1998. Published: Eskenazi, PEC, p.34, no.27. Hurtig, MNA, p. 191, no.797. Davey, MTH, p.101, no.283. INSJ, vol.19, no.1, p.24, no.10. Exhibited and Published: Bandini, IAN, p.87, no.173. For a somewhat similar example from the Joseph and Elena Kurstin Collection, see H. Joly, WLB, pl.VIII, no.384, and Eskenazi, Carré, p.96, no.96. This example was sold at Bonhams, New York, 16 December 2022, lot 30. This is an example of a tsukumo-gami, an everyday household object—such as a lantern or, here, a basin—that takes on its own malign kami (spirit or numen) if neglected for more than 99 years. Reflecting the 'make do and mend' recycling spirit of the Edo period (1615-1868), tsukumo-gami served as a warning against unnecessary consumption, but could be pacified if the object was carefully and respectfully discarded before it reached its hundredth year.