Exquisite carved wood Sennin Chinnan okimono Edo Japanese 18thC SIGNED 陳楠

This is an exquisitely carved representation of an ascetic known in both Chinese and Japanese cultures as Sennin Chinnan (Chennan Sennin) 陳楠 .

This ascetic was known to control a dragon that he keeps in his alms bowl and can summon at any time.

In this beautiful carved piece, Chennan Sennin has summoned the dragon and is depicted grimacing as the dragon appears to have climbed onto his back and sunk it’s teeth into the ascetic’s skull. This humorous take on the myth appears to show the dragon controlling the ascetic rather than the other way round.

The amount of detail on both the dragon and ascetic is amazing with both having what appears to be tiny semi precious stone inset eyes (polished agate?).

This exceptional carved wood ‘okimono’ has a two character signature inlaid on the underside of the base: Eiz-Sen.

The only Eiz-sen that we have identified was Keisai Eisen (渓斎 英泉, 1790–1848) who was a woodblock printer known to carve his own printing blocks.

We are unable to locate any other SIGNED carved wood okimono of this diminutive size, period and quality.
This would appear to be for domestic use, in a personal shrine in the home.

Some London based dealers are selling unsigned but similar quality and period wood okimono for £10,000+.

Galerie Zack sold a small ivory netsuke Chennan Sennin for 1264 Euros (2020).
Bonhams sold a much smaller and lower quality carved wood Chennan Sennin (2020) for US$1,200.

However, this is NOT a netsuke: it is a beautiful, large, high quality okimono with exquisite detail and a wonderful sense of humour. I have looked at hundreds of carved wood okimono from the Edo and Meji periods and they are all on flat bases.
This one has a delightfully carved mound base which is unusual and rare.

This remarkable and very attractive deep brownish red work of art has some age related stress cracks but is otherwise in very good condition.

Please note that the final image provided is for information only – it was scanned some years ago and only a JPEG image is available which can be printed out and sent to the buyer on request.

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