This section introduces museums, located in Japan and around the world, that house or display netsuke and other related objects such as inro, pipe cases, tobacco implements, yatate, sword fittings.
Collection of tobacco pouches assembled by the rakugo (comic story) teller Katsura Bunraku VIII.
The museum sometimes displays items such as netsuke and tobacco pouches. The museum was located in Shibuya, Tokyo, but it will re-open in Sumida-ku on April 25, 2015.
The Museum has published a number of tobacco-related catalogs, including those of netsuke and tobacco pouches
The Museum houses the netsuke and Chinese snuff bottles collected by the Japanese leading sculptor Asakura Fumio (1883-1964), who was active in the early to mid 20th century.
The museum houses netsuke and inro (the late Prince Takamado saw the collection) .
They published a catalog of a special exhibition in which netsuke and inro from their collection was on view.
The colleciton in cludes a shoki netsuke which feels wonderful when held in hand (available for viewing on appointment).
The museum has the Casal collection of netsuke, inro, pipe cases and various lacquerware.
Netsuke are sometimes on view as part of their permanent display.
Casal collection catalog of netsuke and lacquerware is available.
The museum has netsuke and inro, and displays them and other artistic crafts from the end of Edo through Meiji periods as permanent or special exhibition.
Netsuke are sometimes on view.
About 400 works of netsuke, mostly contemporary, are displayed in the only existing samurai residence in the city of Kyoto. Since the opening in September 2007, this museum was available for viewing during four periods in a year. From 2015 on, the museum is open throughout the year (except a few closing periods).
The museum houses a large number of sword fittings (Chida collection of 1,072 tsuba (sword guards), Motomochi collection of 768 tsuba, and 10 more tsuba, as well as some fuchi-kashira and kozuka).
The art center houses some 1,000 works of netsuke.
Address: Standford Campus at 328 Lomita Drive and Museum Way (Off Palm Drive), Standford California, USA
Tel: 650-723-4177
Website: http://cantorcollections.stanford.edu
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
The museum houses netsuke and inro from the Avery Brundage collection.
Address: 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Tel: 415-581-3500
Website: http://www.asianart.org
[Massachusetts]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Permanent display of netsuke available.
Catalog was published to accompany the exhibition in 2001.
Address: Avenue of Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-5597, USA
Tel: 617-267-9300
Website: http://www.mfa.org
Peabody Essex Museum
The museum houses netsuke.
Address: East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970-3783, USA
Tel: 978-745-9500
Website: http://pem.org
[New York]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The museum has about 600 inro and 2,500 netsuke.
Address: 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028-0198, USA
Tel: 212-535-7710
Website: http://www.metmuseum.org
[Ohio]
Toledo Museum of Art
The museum has netsuke mainly from Richard Silverman collection.
Published a netsuke catalog.
The museum received the donation of a part of netsuke-related publications assembled by Norman Sandfield who complied The Ultimate Netsuke Bibliography, making the books and their database available for public use.
The museum housese inro and over 1,000 netsuke.
In the Toshiba Gallery, 162 netsuke and 52 inro are permanently displayed. The Gallery will be closed in April 2015 for refurbishment, and will re-open in late October 2015, and there will be 72 netsuke and 37 inro on show.
A book on their inro and another book on netsuke have been published.
Address: Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL, UK
Tel: 020-7942-2000
Website: http://www.vam.ac.uk
The Fitzwilliam Museum
The museum houses more than 500 netsuke from the 17th to 20th centuries.
The museum has netsuke. Among them, 128 netsuke from the collection of the late Mr. Jonas Goro Gadelius (1926 - 2003) were donated by his widow Gabita. The donated pieces include works by Mitsuhiro, Soko, Kokusai, as well as contemporary works by Masatoshi, Birch, and Ryushi.
Public display of netsuke began on June 2, 2009, and the display is refreshed each year. The installation of the first display can be seen at the following blog and its related link.
Blog: http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/WhyHelenStandsOutFromTheCrowd.aspx
Related link (Flickr): http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumsliverpool/sets/72157618955622974/
This Library in Dublin houses the late Mr. Chester Beatty's (1875-1968) collection of artistic crafts, as well as books, prints, manuscripts, and paintings from the West, Islamic countries, and East Asia. As for Japanese art, the collection includes hundreds of ukiyoe, tsuba (sword guards), netsuke, and inro. Twenty to thirty works of netsuke are on permanent display (on rotation). The Library also houses 900 pieces of Chinese snuff bottles.
The museum has netsuke, tobacco pouches, and inro from the collections of Philipp Franz von Siebold and others. Some of the pieces are on permanent display.
In 2005 this museum in Milan received some 400 netsuke collected by the Mr. Giacinto Lanfranchi (1889-1971), a part of which is on display (as of October 2013). Their website posts the images and descriptions of the collection (it is in progress) through the efforts of Mr. Giovanni Rimondi (click on "English" on the upper right, then click on "Collections" on the left, and then click on "Netsuke").
I complied the pieces of information for this page from some e-mail and personal correspondece as well as from the following material. Thank you! Bessatsu Taiyo, Kotto-wo Tanoshimu 4, Inro to Netsuke [Taiyo Special Edition, Appreciation of Antiques 4, Inro and Netsuke] 1995. International Netsuke Society Journal. Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal.
Sandfield, Norman. The Ultimate Netsuke Bibliography. 1999.