the further adventures of the netsuke...

Back to our story...In Vienna the netsuke are rescued from the Nazi’s by the Ephrussi’s loyal maid, Anna, who stuffs them into her mattress. Soldiers storm through the Ephrussi Palais stripping the walls of paintings and emptying the cabinets of silver and porcelain but they do not steal the netsuke.

Phew! they're safe. It is perhaps the one small thing Anna can save to pass on to the Ephrussi children.

After the war when the daughter, Elizabeth, visits Vienna, Anna returns the netsuke to her. A welcome gift bringing back happy childhood memories. After returning to England,
her new home, she shares them with her brother, Iggie.

At this point Iggie has been offered jobs in Japan or another country. The netsuke seem to persuade him to pick Japan. He wants to take them back to their home.

It is a good decision. Although Japan is a mess after WWII, he enjoys the country, meets his life partner, Jiro, and becomes a successful banker, like his father.

Our author, Edmund De Waal, visits Iggie in Japan and is first introduced to the family's netsuke collection. Iggie has begun research to discover who has made these small carved figures.

“This is when the netsuke carvers regain their names and start to become people with families, craftsmen in a particular landscape.”

He has catalogued the collection and it is “surprisingly valuable.” Several pieces where made by well known and respected artists.

After Iggie’s death De Waal inherits the collection. As an artist he appreciates their unique "beauty". In England, another new home, they are enjoyed by his children and family.

But once again the netsuke cannot sit quiet or peacefully in their glass display case. For De Waal the netsuke propel him on this journey to discover his family history and write the book, The Hare With Amber Eyes.

Perhaps we should just call them Japanese "action figures" since they do seem to prod their owners to "act".

Why objects are handed on....

Before starting our book I usually check out a few reviews just
to get my mind primed for the read ahead.

I’m recommending Object Lessons, a review by Tanya Harrod
and published in The Times Literary Supplement.
It’s beautifully written and it has really helped me appreciate some of the finer points of our book.

Harrod explains that the netsuke collection was available
for sale in 1880 Paris because the objects had lost their purpose in Japan.

“They functioned, modestly, as a toggle, threaded with cord
tightened with a bead, from which hung useful objects such as tobacco pouches, sake flasks and boxes containing seals or medicines. But when Japanese elites began to Westernize intellectually, industrially and sartorially, a great many objects lost their purpose – most obviously Samurai armour and swords and sword fittings, but also elaborate brocade robes and sashes and the whole world of sagemonon or “hanging things”, suspended chatelaine – like and secured by netsuke.”

Charles Ephrussi enjoys his netsuke collection for awhile
but then sends them on to Vienna, Austria as a wedding gift to his nephew, Viktor and bride Emmy. They are handed on because;

“as small tactile objects…they stood for a fashionable
collecting mania and also, for a love affair.”

Charles had collected and shared the netsuke with a mistress
who has moved on. He is also changing the decorating style of his fashionable home. Japanese objects were new and popular in the 1880’s but in 1899 they were “yesterday” so the netsuke had lost their “purpose” in Paris.

At one point Edmund De Waal, our storyteller, describes each netsuke as a storyteller of Old Edo, Japan;

“…the barrel-maker framed by the arc of his half-finished
barrel; the street-wrestlers in a sweaty, tumbling embrace of dark chestnut wood; the old, drunk monk with robes awry; the servant girl cleaning the floor; the rat-catcher with his basket open.”

These characters are working people, others are animals. Definitely out of place in a wealthy woman’s Viennese dressing room.

The children are allowed to take them out of the virtine and play with them. They are toys and characters in their stories. A new use for the netsuke.

So where will the story take them next?

So who is really big brother?

In 1984 when the Macintosh computer was released Steve Jobs
authorized an amazing televison commercial based on the George Orwell book “1984”.

If you haven’t see it recently, take a look: 1984 Macintosh TV Commercial

It was directed by Ridley Scott fresh from filming the science fiction story, “Blade Runner”.

At this time Jobs is in competition with IBM’s PC and he
knows he is loosing the numbers game.

The ad paints IBM as the big monolith who is sucking our
brains and turning us into robots. Theywant total control.

The reality I have learned after reading the Steve Jobs
biography is that he is the total control freak.

He made the engineers building the Macintosh design new
screws so no one from the outside could get “under the hood” and change anything inside. At this time lots of computer users were still hobbyists who loved to open the box to see how it works and personalize it.

Businesses needed to have an open architecture so they could add more memory or application programs.

By making the Macintosh so closed Jobs limited the sales. It was the computer he created…but not the computer all his customers might have wanted.

A great commercial, a doomed computer.