Hawaiian Eye Tiki Netsuke anyone ? - Tiki Marketplace

P Paipo Member Aotearoa / NZ Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 1886	P Paipo Posted posted on Sun, Sep 21, 2008 4:54 AM On 2008-09-21 00:27, Hakalugi wrote: According to the peeps at Netsuke Central, the origin of contemporary Netsuke is usually of little concern. A long as nobody is trying to pass off the Chinese stuff as vintage Japanese, everyone is happy. Check out the topmost thread on that forum (under Contemporary Netsuke) - "Broken Author Right". It's been posted on a couple of other carving forums I read recently, and there is certainly plenty of concern from the artists and collectors. That said, copying is as much part of netsuke carving as it is a part of tiki - replicating old masterworks is an accepted practice. The problem with this Chinese stuff (and Indonesian, and Phillipines) is there is no real art, homage or learning process involved in its manufacture. It is soulless crap made for the cheapest price possible. These netsuke are passed from hand to hand along a factory process line, with no creative intent or inspiration behind the finished article whatsoever, and it shows. I think turning these guys onto tiki would be a bad idea, because the last thing we need is another source of cheap knockoffs copied from established tiki artists' work. Unlike many other products, we can still make a choice when it comes to purchasing art. sushiman - a friend from my first year of carving school is a Japanese netsuke carver, and he tells me there are only about 3 or 4 guys of his generation coming through in Japan, with even fewer experienced carvers willing to teach. There are definitely many more netsuke artists outside of Japan, including here in NZ. PS: If you're going to reply in the form of an entire quoted article, you should probably credit your source - unless you wrote it yourself?

On 2008-09-21 00:27, Hakalugi wrote:

According to the peeps at Netsuke Central, the origin of contemporary Netsuke is usually of little concern. A long as nobody is trying to pass off the Chinese stuff as vintage Japanese, everyone is happy.

Check out the topmost thread on that forum (under Contemporary Netsuke) - "Broken Author Right". It's been posted on a couple of other carving forums I read recently, and there is certainly plenty of concern from the artists and collectors.

That said, copying is as much part of netsuke carving as it is a part of tiki - replicating old masterworks is an accepted practice. The problem with this Chinese stuff (and Indonesian, and Phillipines) is there is no real art, homage or learning process involved in its manufacture. It is soulless crap made for the cheapest price possible. These netsuke are passed from hand to hand along a factory process line, with no creative intent or inspiration behind the finished article whatsoever, and it shows. I think turning these guys onto tiki would be a bad idea, because the last thing we need is another source of cheap knockoffs copied from established tiki artists' work. Unlike many other products, we can still make a choice when it comes to purchasing art.

sushiman - a friend from my first year of carving school is a Japanese netsuke carver, and he tells me there are only about 3 or 4 guys of his generation coming through in Japan, with even fewer experienced carvers willing to teach. There are definitely many more netsuke artists outside of Japan, including here in NZ.

PS: If you're going to reply in the form of an entire quoted article, you should probably credit your source - unless you wrote it yourself?

Post #409067 by Paipo on Sun, Sep 21, 2008 4:54 AM