netsuke

noun

net·su·ke ˈnets-(ˌ)kā

-kē,

-ke,

also ˈnet-sü-

plural netsuke or netsukes

: a small and often intricately carved toggle (as of wood or ivory) used to fasten a small container to a kimono sash

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Netsuke - the word in English can be pluralized as either netsuke or netsukes - were traditionally part of a man's dress, used to attach a medicine box, pipe, or tobacco pouch to the sash (called an obi) of a Japanese man's traditional kimono. Because the members of the newly risen merchant class, ranking below the samurai, were not permitted to wear jewelry, netsuke took the place of other personal adornment. With the end of the Tokugawa regime, leading to new customs of dress and the introduction of the cigarette shortly thereafter, netsuke became obsolete, though some were still carved to supply the demand of foreign residents and tourists.

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On the mantle, a collection of Japanese netsuke was displayed. —The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2023 And like the book, the show keeps circling back to the netsuke — unveiling them in groups, with four different glass cases placed at intervals — to underscore the endurance of these objects across a century of violence, discrimination and dispossession. —New York Times, 29 Dec. 2021