SPECIAL POST: Japanese Souvenir Purse with Ivory Man

This bag came to The Vintage Purse Museum with a box lot of Japanese handbags purchased in the 1950s and 1960s. Based on research (and with the help of members of Netsuke.org), this piece was determined to be a souvenir from the same era. We erroneously thought this to be a man's sagemono, worn on the obi, but now we believe the bag to be modeled on the traditional ladies purse, a larger version of this, known as a kinchaku kago, a woven basket with fabric drawstring top. We found that there is a Japanese technique known as roketsuzome (or rozome), a way of dyeing fabric similar to batik, and the top may be an example of it. The netsuke piece is likely ivory from the same era, made in China, and given a "signature" with the Japanese-sounding (although inauthentic) name Masayuki. We don't know if the netsuke piece was purchased with the bag, or if it came attached to it when originally purchased in the '50s-'60s. The box, which is covered with thin green paper, may have been made in the US, and was used to store the piece.


Thu, Jun 14, 1979 – 13 · The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, United States of America) · Newspapers.com Fri, Apr 8, 1988 – 37 · The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America) · Newspapers.com