Skip to main content

Netsuke of an Immortal, by Tomotada

Image attached to O.90-1991

An image of Netsuke/katabori. An Immortal. Tomotada (Japanese). Figure of an immortal holding in his right hand a bamboo shoot (?) to his mouth, with two prominent front teeth, wearing a leaf cloak and seated among incised foliage. Undulating and irregular base with traces of shells and fossil marks. Finely incised using the contours of the amber/tortoiseshell. Himotoshi at the back. Amber or tortoiseshell, carved, incised and possibly stained, height 3.7 cm, width 5.9 cm, circa 1800-1868. Signed on base, translated as Tomotada or Yucho, meaning friendship and loyalty. Edo Period (1603-1868).

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

About this image

Netsuke/katabori. An Immortal. Tomotada (Japanese). Figure of an immortal holding in his right hand a bamboo shoot (?) to his mouth, with two prominent front teeth, wearing a leaf cloak and seated among incised foliage. Undulating and irregular base with traces of shells and fossil marks. Finely incised using the contours of the amber/tortoiseshell. Himotoshi at the back. Amber or tortoiseshell, carved, incised and possibly stained, height 3.7 cm, width 5.9 cm, circa 1800-1868. Signed on base, translated as Tomotada or Yucho, meaning friendship and loyalty. Edo Period (1603-1868).

Image data

  • Accession Number: O.90-1991
  • Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
  • Aperture: f/27.0
  • Focal length: 120
  • Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
  • Photographer name: Michael Jones
  • Image height: 768 pixels
  • Image width: 1024 pixels
  • Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
  • Filesize: 70.89kB
  • Exposure time: 1/60
  • ISO Speed: 200
  • Fnumber: 27/1
  • Captured: 2013:09:17 16:34:20

Key words

19th Century cape carved cloak Edo Period Fitz_AA immorality immortal incised Japanese katabori male netsuke seated sitting Tomotada tortoise-shell tortoiseshell

Citation for print

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

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Netsuke of an Immortal, by Tomotada " Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-207493 Accessed: 2025-12-05 15:50:54

Citation for Wikipedia

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

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-207493 |title=Netsuke of an Immortal, by Tomotada |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 15:50:54|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://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-207493

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/aa37/large_O_90_1991_201309_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="An Immortal"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Netsuke of an Immortal, by Tomotada </figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>
    

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...