Japanese (?) netsuke questions

I picked this little beauty up today ... my first netsuke! I love items with fish designs, so even if it wasn't worth what I paid ... I would still be happy with it.

It is signed, but I cannot even tell which way is up on the characters. I'm not even certain that it is Japanese, but I was able to find a similar one sold at Skinner's auctions a couple of years ago and they stated theirs was Japanese. Can anyone read what the characters are?

Neither I nor the person running the estate sale could tell if this was ivory or bone or resin ... but now that I've got it brushed off a bit, I believe I see the Schreger lines under bright light (tried to capture in photo ... not sure if they will show up well). I didn't pay much for it but I am still not willing to poke it with a hot pin!

I do not collect asian art and have no experience with these, I consider this my first 'study piece' in this area ... so any information that anyone is willing to give will be greatly appreciated.

I want to scrub this little guy down to clean him up ... but would that be safe? Would the dark eyes and signature wash off? I used a soft brush to get the worst of the dust off but as you can see in teh close-up photos, he's still pretty grungy.

- Kat

 

Nice! If it is ivory look out for all the new laws in effect.

 

Looks like ivory from here & I think you've cleaned it as much as you need to !

It's charming !!

 

Cute!

 

Very nice and congrats on your first netsuke find. The link below should help you:

Link: http://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2678B/lots/59

 

Thanks 'Nuff, that is the auction I mentioned above .... oddly, I didn't notice the arrow for additional photos in my search ... so I didn't see that the characters matched on both, which I have now noticed.

Gyokuseki is the carver/artist? Or is this one of those "in the style of ...." pieces? Did a carver often make several of the same style netsuke?

Seriously, I know next to nothing about these .. sorry for all the questions.
I'm going back to the estate today ... maybe I should try to find more ...

 

I'd grab anything you can. Very nice little thing, and DO NOT clean him any more. He'd be a couple of hundred dollars here - but you can't sell him on Ebay, which is a bummer.

 

You are most welcome.

The folks who can best answer your questions can be found here: http://netsuke.websitetoolbox.com/

One of, if not the best forum/site on the net regarding netsukes.

 

Thanks 'Nuff, for sharing that link ... I appreciate your help (may need to pick your brain a bit more concerning a bronze chop I purchased)

 

Most welcome and no problem, post some images.