Portland Japanese Garden

From Damsels to Demons:
The Hidden Art of Netsuke Carving

June 19 – July 5

Open during Garden hours

Free with admission

The exquisite miniature carvings known as netsuke were the essence of understated chic for the fashionable samurai and merchants of Edo period Japan. From damsels to demons, netsuke have depicted everything from zodiac animals to gods of good luck, and from fierce protective demons to beautiful maidens. They were used to secure tobacco pouches, small medicine boxes (inro), and other containers to the sashes of the wearer's pocket-less kimono.

Carved with consummate artistry into a wide variety of imaginative shapes by master craftsmen, netsuke have much to tell us about the customs and folklore of traditional Japan. Worn partially concealed beneath the outer cloaks of the wearer, they served as good luck charms, as humorous personal mascots, or as treasured miniature works of art.

The exhibition celebrates the Marian P. Miller Collection of more than 100 netsuke gifted to the Portland Japanese Garden in 1998.

Additionally highlighted by the work of top modern-day netsuke carvers, including American artist Janel Jacobsen and British-born artist Nick Lamb, the exhibition explores the legends and characters depicted in these intricate carvings.

The exhibition is enhanced by a set of framed photographic images of selected netsuke from the Miller Collection revealed in close-up detail by photographer Jonathan Ley.

Opening Lecture & Reception

LACMA Curator Hollis Goodall Speaks on Netsuke

Sunday, June 20

7:30-9:30pm in the Garden Pavilion

$10 for members, $15 for non-members

Reservations required, space is limited

(Reservations open April 27)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art Curator Hollis Goodall is one of the world's leading experts on netsuke. Engaged at LACMA since 1981, with a two-year hiatus as Research Fellow at the University of Kyoto in Japan between 1986 and 1988, Goodall oversees installations in the Pavilion for Japanese Art, planning of exhibitions for the Japanese department and in cooperation with other museum departments, educational programs, web programming, collection management, growth, and research. She has done extensive research on netsuke in support of LACMA's remarkable Bushell Collection of netsuke, and in mid-2003 she completed work on the book The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke: A Legacy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hollis will discuss how to look at netsuke and explain some of the legends and images represented in the Garden's own Miller Collection as well as in LACMA's Bushell Collection. A reception will immediately follow the lecture.