Watermelon Netsuke Carving With Makie Lacquer Painting スイカの蒔絵根付

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This looks so fresh and sweet, does't it?

It's 3cm high "Watermelon" carved and "makie"-painted by Japanese netsuke carver and lacquer painter Kinuyo Hariya from boxwood. The "makie" painting technique, i.e., sprinkling or spraying wet lacquer with metallic powder, usually gold or silver, from a dusting tube, hair-tipped paint brush, etc., makes the color of this watermelon skin so real....
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

3cm high netuske carving watermelon 「すいか」針谷絹代作

Netsuke is usually not such colorful, i.e., they are mostly the color of the material, e.g., ivory or wood. But because of Ms. Hariya's skills of combining the miniature carving technique and the colorful lacquer sprinkling technique, this small summer fruit is amazingly green, different from other netsuke carvings!

You can see this miniature watermelon at Prince Takamado Collection of Tokyo National Museum.

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根付彫刻家、そして蒔絵師でもある針谷絹代氏の彫った「すいか」です。黄楊から彫られ、蒔絵で文様が描かれています。まるで本物のように瑞々しくありませんか。根付でこんな緑を見たのは初めてでした。東京国立博物館高円宮コレクションの一品です。

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