In the mid-seventeenth century, Japan’s ruling shogun cut off nearly all ties to the outside world, launching a period of self-isolation (sakoku) that would last more than 200 years. Contact was limited to highly regulated interaction with Chinese and Dutch traders. Crewmen, laborers, attendants, and servants were essential to the daily running of foreign trade companies, and Edo-period (1615−1868) Japanese paintings and prints of Dutch ships show that many of the shipmates and workers loading and unloading vessels were people from island cultures. The Dutch East India Company, headquartered in Batavia (present-day Jakarta), employed workers from Indonesia or nearby islands. Laborers or sailors also came from the numerous ports through which ships passed on route to Japan. Like the Dutch merchants, they were a curiosity to the Japanese and likewise appeared as subjects in netsuke.
In nearly all examples of “islander” netsuke, the figure is an amalgamation of attributes taken from different cultures. This figure wears a cloth skirt, the typical attire ascribed to islanders. However, here his legs are covered in what appear to be leggings or boots, and he wears closed shoes similar to those seen on Dutchmen netsuke. Another Western attribute is the spyglass, imported in increasing numbers in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Woodblock prints of Dutch merchant ships include South Asian crew peering through spyglasses.
2024
