I'm sorry about the photo quality, I'll try taking some more clearer shots if you'd like. What is this animal? At first I thought it was a frog, but I'm not sure.

This one is just gorgeous, I think it's a poppy flower done in silver and gold metal. The craftsmanship is just phenomenal!

This guy is FIERCE! Is it a god? And there is an inset, round piece of silver metal on the reverse side, is it representing something (the moon maybe?)

I think he is "DARUMA".
A gold bead under DARUMA looks SATSUMA style.
Is it a porcelain bead?

Thank you for taking the time to help me, Shinji, I was hoping you would!
The gold bead is porcelain, it has figures of the Seven Gods of Fortune. It does look like Satsuma, but it reminds me more of the Arita Toshikane buttons that I have seen in the past. Are porcelain ojimi uncommon? I haven't seen any other examples.

I am having a difficult time finding good information about these ojimi, so I am extremely grateful for any comments and information and I thank you very much!

-Melissa

I have never heard the name "Arita Toshikane".
I tried google it and couldn't find anything about it in Japan.
It may be a kind of brand name specially for export.

Porcelain ojimi are common.
Yours is Satsuma or Kutani I think.

And I should have called him "Bodhidharma" instead of "Daruma" in English.

He is not a god but a monk.

Yes, Toshikane was a company name, and I do think they were an export company. Attaching a link that has a little information regarding them, but not much.

And regarding Bodhidharma, I see in your link the image has a large moon, so I am even more assuming that the silver bead inset into this ojime represents the moon.

I think they are the Rokkasen or Six Immortal Poets (there are six figures on the ojime, not seven)...I love that one of the Immortals is a woman (I was confusing her with Benzaiten, a goddess)

If they are the Rokkasen,Her name is "Ono no komachi",said to be the most beautifull woman in those days.

and 1200 years later her name is still synonymous with beauty, she truly is immortal :)

this one is signed, can anyone read the plaque? I think the raised design is of a chrysanthemum. Again, sorry for the photo quality.

It's KENYA. (You have to read it from right to left.)
There was a famous potter named Kenya Miura(1821-1889) in Japan.
He was active from end of Edo to early Meiji period.
But I don't know that yours was made by Kenya Miura.
Kenya Miura was making ceramic ware mainly.

I took five photos showing sections of the necklace, I'll follow this post with photos 3-5. If you are curious about any individual bead let me know and I'll get clearer photos, measurements, whatever you need.

Perhaps if you got rid of the underscore in your file name the image may post.

I'll try that next time I post, thanks for the tip! -Mel

I'm having a blast digging through the archives and came across a post of yours describing the evolution of Japanese metal working from weaponry to decorative art (am including the link). In the post you mention "shakudo" being a mixture of gold and copper, which made me wonder about the demon head I'm showing.

I particularly like the design of this ojime because when you pinched your fingers together in the demon's mouth you could feel the string as you slid the ojime up and down, very ingenious.

will try again, I didn't see an underscore to take out, so fingers crossed

Mel,

Lovely ojime collection strand!

I believe your coppery colored ojime is made from shibuichi, a copper/silver alloy. Shakudo is a gold/copper alloy which is normally blackened. In fact both shibuichi and shakudo were normally patinated to bring out a range of colors which depended on the exact composition of the alloy.

Here are two ojime from my collection - with shibuichi base on one, and I believe the black base on the other is shakudo, but not 100% sure.

The attached link has some info on Japanese metal alloys.

Ah, I see, yes it definitely matches the ojime on the left in your photo.

Any thoughts on what the figure of the ojime I show represents? I use the term "demon" for lack of better information and from my experience with porcelain buttons in the form of Noh masks of demons such as Hannyah.

Thanks for the information Rosanna, I appreciate it very, very much!

-Mel

There is a book by this title, by Robert O. Kinsey - you should be able to find a used copy on line somewhere - and it has a wealth of information and incredible images of ojime. You will be able to spend many satisfying hours researching your ojime. Currently there's a used one on AMazon for $19 plus shipping.

There is a whole panoply of gods and demons in the Japanese mythology, and you'll have to go through all the images & explanations to try & match yours.

Happy bead collecting!

Dear Melissa,

Was very busy yesterday working with an out of town ojime client. Am just able to get back to you briefly now:

Every writer who takes himself seriously should be able to edit his material. Due to a glitch on BCN, I am not able to do so here. Therefore, I would prefer to speak with you by telephone where I would very much enjoy chatting about ojime.

I love your collection; I should since I've spent nearly forty five years as a specialist in ojime. Hope you will be able to attend a talk I have been asked to do this fall in South Florida. I live in California. Where are you?

I have your email address. And you have mine. Let's arrange for a telephone chat.

Sincerely,

Hi Fred,
No one else has had an issue with editing posts that I know of, so I believe it is an issue within your computer which we cannot control from here.

I've been having trouble posting photos in general, something to do with this little old laptop I'm using I'm sure, but I keep using it because it's so small and light and because it doesn't have Windows 8 which I can't stand (personal preference). I'll try posting from my larger (newer) laptop going forward.

Thank you again so much for this wonderful forum, Joyce and David. It has touched a lot of lives for which we are all extremely grateful.
-Mel

O.k., at the risk of being a pain, I would like to post some individual ojime from this necklace with some specific questions. Any information or opinion is very sincerely welcome.

First, I wonder what the material may be for this ojime. I believe it is stone of some sort, possibly petrified wood. It looks as if there may have been surface treatment applied to emphasize the contrast between the lighter and darker bands, but perhaps it is just a quality of the material. This contrasting reminds me of the light/dark contrast on Dzi beads. I am not saying I think it is Dzi, it just reminds me of that treatment.

Also wondering about this cornerless cube shape, is this a common Japanese shape? The shape is repeated in two other beads on this necklace.

Thanks again for your patience and any information you can pass on.

-Mel

I love that this bead has a "smiley" face! It is a reflection of my face in the bead since I am grinning every time I look at it :)

If yours is made by same material with mine,it is called for "Kakuten" in Japan.
The name of "Kakuten" came from a legend that it had been made by crane's cranial bone (Kaku=crane,ten=upper).

But recently it was reported that "Anatomical, physicochemical and DNA analysis of kakuten, the Japanese fastening device, or ojime, possibly crafted using a horse's molar in the Edo era" by three Japanese scholars.

I don't know how Robert K.Liu reached his opinion of "Whale Molar".
And I'm not sure yours is Kakuten or not.

Shinji

I'm attaching a link to an inro that had a ojime that looked very much like mine. Yours and the ones shown by Robert Liu looked more red than mine, but the one on the link is very similar in color. Scroll down about halfway down the page, the title for the item is: Tsuishu laquer Inro with sages and netsuke.

The second link is to a discussion on the International Netsuke Society Forum which discusses this type of ojime.

It looks like the redness is probably an applied dye and that mine has little or none of the dye.

I'm indebted to you for all the information and time you are providing, I appreciate it so much!

Whales don't have convoluted molars like horses and elephants.

I began to think that the whale molar designation was incorrect after Googling around and discovering that sperm whales don't have molars - just pointed teeth all the way back.

Dear Shinji,

Some years ago I composed an article on kakuten beads for The Bead Museum Quarterly, based on my research—since I am familiar with the issues and history.

Let's remember that, with unknown materials, ideas change over time. Eventually, science will step in and determine what is what.

In the instance of kakuten, the prevailing story was that this material derived from the Japanese crested crane. And there seems to have been some mistaken idea that a crested crane was like or similar to the hornbill bird, and therefore "hornbill ivory" (the keratinaceous material exploited by the Chinese—and occasioanly seen as a Japanese bead or ojime). But the crest on a crane is a tuff of feathers. There is no crane growth that would provide the material of kakuten. So the Japanese tradition and name is based on a mistaken idea.

In the 1980s, a materials "expert" at UCLA determined that kakuten was "diseased (cancerous) whale tooth." I suppose he looked at a bead, and made a comparison to a tooth that was in their collections that seemed similar. However, I rejected this idea out-of-hand for a very simple and straightforward reason. In examining multiples of kakuten beads, I noticed that they had a repeating predictable structure. And this countered any idea that the conformations of kakuten resulted from a cancerous growth—which would be different in each instance.

I determined that kakuten was derived from a mammal—and obviously a large mammal, and most-likely a quadruped. I considered they might be elephant teeth. More about this shortly.

In about 2000 I went to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and had a consultation with their top avian specialist. I showed him the bead I had, explained the "crested crane" idea and the "cancerous whale tooth" idea—and he confirmed for me that there was NO crane in Japan with a ivory-like or keratinaceous growth. (Which I knew.) And he seemed to think the whale idea was silly. (Which it was.) He then told me we should confer with his colleagues—who were meeting in another room, watching a presentation on a new dinosaur species. So we went there.

When the presentation (that was interesting) was over, he gathered these men into a group, explained who I was and what the issue was—and we passed-around the kakuten bead. The prevailing opinion, when expressed, was that this was the tooth of a large mammal. I affirmed that this was my idea too.

I considered elephant teeth because elephants are exploited for their tusks, that are ivory—and kakuten appears to be ivory (dental material). As it happens—I know from studying ivory and elephants—different species of elephants have very different and distinct dentitions. In fact, since teeth persist from great antiquity, some species of elephanrs are only classified by their teeth, that still remain in the geological record. But I conceded that kakuten could be from any number of large mammals.

In recent years a DNA analysis has revealed the animal that provided kakuten is the horse. Horses can be considered a renewable resource—and their teeth exist to be exploited for ivory beadmaking. None of this surprises me. I predicted it—the horse being "a large quadruped mammal."

So the above is how all the issues around kakuten transpired, and have been resolved. Let's not judge Robert Liu harshly. He was certainly correct that kakuten is not "crested crane." And he merely reported what the UCLA "expert" said as that man's opinion, at the time Collectible Beads was published. (1995.)

By the way, a few months ago I purchased a quantity of new kakuten beads—all dyed red, very spherical, and with small perforations compared to old beads. These were represented as being "old" and as being "Japanese." However, I am more inclined to think that these and all kakuten beads probably come from China—even though they are often associated with Japan. (I would like to see this disproven if that were possible.) See the photo attached here. These beads are also dyed green, yellow, and purple. I agree that in a few instances kakuten beads have served as ojime. But I have seen very few occurrences. And we have to respect the idea that sometimes a missing ojime can be replaced by another bead. And, think about it this way: If kakuten beads had been made in Japan, there would be no need to speculate on the origin of the material. The Japanese would know the origin. This implies a possible or probable foreign origin (that was not disclosed).

Take care. Jamey

I wonder if it was deliberately carved to accent the "eyes", the features are so distinct I have to think it was deliberate.

Gently tapping the bead onto one of your front teeth should help you discern stone from ivory or bone. Do it with two beads of the confirmed materials, you will "feel" the difference.

It has a sharper sound than ivory, but not as sharp as glass, I think it's stone.

That is exactly what I thought too...but when mammal tooth was mentioned the memory of myself as a little country girl who grew up around farm animals said 'yup, that looks a lot like the inside of a horse or even a hog molar'. I think the corner-less cube shape is what threw me at first, lapidary treatment of teeth is not something we normally see. Another example of our minds playing tricks on us again!

I've never noticed cloisonne done in bands like this, but I'm sure it's done all the time, just hasn't been on my radar.

although most of the enamel has long departed you can still see traces...interesting that this one appears to be gold plated over copper judging from the surface wear on the metal top and bottom

These and the banded melon shape glass beads are some of my favorites in this assemblage. I think they're Edo era (please correct me if I'm wrong)?
I don't know why, but I have a particular affinity for glass working. Maybe since I'm a Leo and we're supposed to love fire? :)
o.k., enough for today, thanks again for being patient with my excitement.

good for you, Mel, for having the insight, interest and following through to the exciting end.

These are beautiful; love em!!