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Plate 1 (see overleaf). Fox in Woman's Guise. Ivory. Unsigned. 17th century. Collection of the author.

This extremely stylized netsuke portraying a fox in the guise of a woman illustrates a basic principle of the seventeenth-century netsuke artists: that their subjects must emerge spontaneously from the medium and in accordance with the inherent properties of the material used. At the same time, in picturing the traditionally supernatural fox in one of his deceitful roles, the netsuke exemplifies the manner in which the creators of these miniature sculptures drew their themes from Japanese legendry.