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Re: Asian? Statue Figure w/ Makers Mark
Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Apr 13, 2023 (01:19 AM)
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This is a legendary auspicious creature known as a Badger aka Raccoon dog or Tanuki in Japan. the Following is extracted from an early 20th century book on Japanese arts, with the first image below being of a Tanuke netsuke from that book and a second with two views of a Japanese ceramic bank in the form of one from my collection. Use your imagination.

Best regards,

Bill H.

"JAPAN AND ITS ARTS" BY MARCUS B. HUISH, VICE-CHAIRMAN, JAPAN SOCIETY, LONDON, 1912 - CHAS SCRIBNER & SONS, NEW YORK

No one who has studied the Art of the country will be surprised to hear that the fox (kitsune) and the badger, or racoon-faced dog (tanuki), are everywhere abundant. Each is credited with the power of assuming other forms; the tanuki is often drawn sitting on its haunches, drumming on its stomach apparently to the moon, but in reality in the hope of misleading travellers by this delicious sound ; it also hides amongst lotuses with the same intent (No. 116),and acts in legend the part of pantaloon to the fox's harle- quin. The badger resembles the American more than the European species : its face is doglike, its tail short and bushy, and it metamorphoses itself into inanimate objects, such as articles of furniture."





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