Netsuke (the Toggle of the Japanese Personal Smoking Set)

Netsuke is the small toggle in traditional Japanese dress that kept items hanging from the sash from falling. Since the kimono has no pockets, items such as tobacco pouches, pipe cases, seals, and medicine boxes were tied to the waist by a cord, with a toggle at the end of the cord hooked over the top edge of the wrapped sash (obi) to hold the set in place.

The other links in this arrangement were the cord (himo) connecting the pieces and the single-holed bead (ojime) that cinched the cord; details are covered in the Japanese personal smoking set entry.

From Utility to Sculpture

The netsuke is accepted to have emerged in something like its familiar form in the 17th century. It spread widely through the Edo period (1603-1868); while its function stayed the same, its carved character came to the fore, and the toggle turned into a branch of miniature sculpture with standards of its own. Makers were called netsuke-shi. The field's earliest compendium is the Sōken Kishō, published in Osaka in 1781 by Inaba Tsūryū; the book introduces more than fifty masters, sometimes with illustrations of their work. After 1868, the spread of Western-style dress weakened the custom of hanging items from the sash, and the netsuke withdrew from everyday use.