Japanese netsuke, fishergirl fighting an octopus, Shibayama

An image of Netsuke: manju: Fishergirl fighting an octopus. Shibayama, c.1870, Japan. The cover is inset with a fishergirl fighting a gold octopus, its tentacles ensnaring the leg of the ivory fishergirl with long black hair and a red lacquer and gilt skirt. Her right arm is raised and clutching a dagger; in her left hand she holds a shell. The base is inlaid in gold with sea plants, a gold shell, and a Shakudo clam, and it has a central himotoshi. Tortoiseshell, ivory, gold and red lacquer, of circular form with an eyelet on the cover, circa 1870. Edo Period (1615-1868). Notes(s): The octopus (tako) is symbolic of prolificacy possibly on account of its many tentacles. It is also a phallic emblem and its supposed infatuation with young girls is the subject of many erotic netsuke. In folklore the octopus acts as physician to Ryujin, the God of the sea.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Netsuke: manju: Fishergirl fighting an octopus. Shibayama, c.1870, Japan. The cover is inset with a fishergirl fighting a gold octopus, its tentacles ensnaring the leg of the ivory fishergirl with long black hair and a red lacquer and gilt skirt. Her right arm is raised and clutching a dagger; in her left hand she holds a shell. The base is inlaid in gold with sea plants, a gold shell, and a Shakudo clam, and it has a central himotoshi. Tortoiseshell, ivory, gold and red lacquer, of circular form with an eyelet on the cover, circa 1870. Edo Period (1615-1868). Notes(s): The octopus (tako) is symbolic of prolificacy possibly on account of its many tentacles. It is also a phallic emblem and its supposed infatuation with young girls is the subject of many erotic netsuke. In folklore the octopus acts as physician to Ryujin, the God of the sea.

Image data

Accession Number: O.49-1991
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal length: 100
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Photographer name: Image Library; Fitzwilliam Museum
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 1002 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 670.09kB
Exposure time: 1/15
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1
Captured: 2000:01:01 23:08:58

Key words

19th Century circular dagger Edo Period female fighting Fitz_AA gilded gilding gilt girls gold himotoshi inlaid inlay Japanese lacquer lacquered lacquering manju netsuke octopus round shakudo shells Shibayama tako tentacles tortoise shell tortoise-shell tortoiseshell turtle shell turtleshell

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Japanese netsuke, fishergirl fighting an octopus, Shibayama"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-214870 Accessed: 2024-11-24 21:33:49

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-214870
            |title=Japanese netsuke, fishergirl fighting an octopus, Shibayama
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-24 21:33:49|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-214869

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa40/O_49_1991_1_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Fishergirl fighting an octopus"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Japanese netsuke, fishergirl fighting an octopus, Shibayama</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>