This curious piece of scrimshaw came to me courtesy of Gage Prentiss of Providence, RI. The estimable Mr. Prentiss informs me that is actually a rather rare example of the kind of netsuke typical of the work of Shingen Ito - a Japanese artist notorious for producing certain bizarrarie during the Edo period. Rumour has it that, subsequent to an encounter with a waterborne corpse of some unknown but wholly-inhuman being, Ito was afflicted by nightmarish visions which gave form to his later sculptural work - including this piece. One hopes that, in this instance, the item is nothing more than the product of a deranged mind and not - as certain occultists have averred - a depiction from real life...
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