Netsuke Frog - Breaking The Silence

Mini woodblock print from my sketch of an antique Japanese netsuke frog (unsgd) at Bristol Museum.

“Breaking the silence

Of an ancient pond,

A frog jumped into water -

A deep resonance.

This poem was written by our master on a spring day. He was sitting in his riverside house in Edo, bending his ears to the soft cooing of a pigeon in the quiet rain. There was a mild wind in the air, and one or two petals of cherry blossom were falling gently to the ground. It was the kind of day you often have in late March - so perfect that you want it to last for ever. Now and then in the garden was heard the sound of frogs jumping into the water.”

From Matsuo Bashō - The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Translated from the Japanese by Nobuyuki Yuasa.

It has been a little quiet over here at Into The Wood so it’s lovely to be woken by the sound of Bashō’s frog and see this beautiful blossom on my journey home. 

Close to home and heart. Cherry plum blossoming in late March.

Books

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō - Translated from the Japanese by Nobuyuki Yuasa

Netsuke - A Quail Tale

Quail's Nest

Poem by John Clare (1793 – 1864)

I wandered out one rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise, 

When from my foot a bird did flee--
The rain flew bouncing from her breast
I wondered what the bird could be,
And almost trampled on her nest. 

The nest was full of eggs and round--
I met a shepherd in the vales,
And stood to tell him what I found.
He knew and said it was a quail's, 

For he himself the nest had found,
Among the wheat and on the green,
When going on his daily round,
With eggs as many as fifteen. 

Among the stranger birds they feed,
Their summer flight is short and low;
There's very few know where they breed,
And scarcely any where they go. 

Quail Carving

Quail Print

Original Netsuke 'Quail (鶉)Crouching over 2 Ears of Millet' from Bristol Museum. Signed Okatomo - Japan.

BBC Tweet of the Day (2mins)

"The Sōken Kishō - (Strange and Wonderful Sword Fittings by Inaba Tsūryū) - published 1781 - of the seven volumes that make up this work, the last comprises a supplement on netsuke, with additional sections on inrō and ojime. The information It contained in the Sōken Kishō formed the backbone of netsuke studies and the West until the twentieth century. Okatomo (active 1781) - mentioned in the Sōken Kishō is widely associated with with netsuke of bird subject, especially quail and millet." Japanese Netsuke (Far Eastern Series / Victoria and Albert Museum)