When collecting Japanese netsuke most of the true antique netsuke, as against lots of modern copies, will normally have two connecting cord holes (known as himotoshi), but one will be much larger than the other!
The netsuke was a handling piece, that was on a cord to a compartment (Sagemono), often this was an inro (a case of several compartments), that was kept closed by a corded bead (ojime) between the inro and the netsuke. The kimono had no pockets so the inro was worn hanging from the kimono sash (obi); the netsuke was then, pushed up under the sash, thus trapping and holding the Sagemono in place.

The reason for the larger hole in the netsuke was that once the cord had been threaded through the inro (or Sagemono) and ojime (the netsuke would then have been threaded on last) it was possible to completely hide the one and only cord knot inside the larger hole.

So the way the smaller hole connected to the larger hole was very well formed providing a smooth curved link that was easy to thread the cord through. Often the larger hole was hollowed out even more, under the surface, in order to provide plenty of space for the knot.

The Manju, often used instead of a netsuke, also had plenty of space to hide the knot within the opening of the two sections.

In my personal view, although there are some very fine netsuke that relied on being threaded through a tail, or a leg, instead of having the usual himotoshi, there was then quite a disadvantage in use, as there was no longer anyway of concealing the cord knot.

Another important factor is the position of such himotoshi, they were always placed so that, as the cord hangs down, the netsuke carving is presented attractively and the right way up. But, these cord holes were also placed in such a way that they did not detract from any of the detailed carving.

Many of the poor quality later netsuke (these were never used, but were really made simply to cash in, on the increasing value of netsuke) are often easy to spot. When inspecting a netsuke if the two holes are of equal size and poorly formed (often these are just two drilled holes angled to meet each other) then you can be sure this is not a good netsuke!

Sadly one can no longer just rely on judging the himotoshi to identify a modern copy, as some now do have smaller and larger holes, especially the recent resin copies of netsuke.

The author has been a very keen Asian antique collector for many years helping to create ‘The Cohen collection’.

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Have you hit a stumbling block in your search for ancestors? Is the given (last) name you’re looking for one that could be easily spelled differently in another language? Try varying the spelling of the given name you are researching - sometimes it can make a world of difference.

For example, we were researching the name “Lesh”, but couldn’t find anything. Until one day, after scanning some of the Ancestry.com forums, we noticed a German spelling of the name - Loesch - and the flood gates opened so much so that we found ancestors back to the Revolutionary War, which helped to prove our rights to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. You can also use the name “Shrader” as an example, which has multiple spellings - Schrader, Schraeder, Schroeder, etc.

So…why did these names change from generation-to-generation?

One reason can be attributed to immigrants themselves. They made a conscious decision when arriving in America that they were going to simplify their name, give it a more “American” spelling, or maybe they wanted to distance themselves from a troubled past.

Another, and equally prevalent, reason was due to record keeping. We haven’t always lived in the age of computers and immigration records were not always 100% accurate. Not because the immigrant officer at Ellis Island was lazy, but because they were trying to process as many people as possible and they would spell names phonetically and, if you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know letter combinations in one language were usually trimmed to a single letter sound in “American” English. For example, ‘ae’ could turn into an ‘a’, an ‘ei’ into an ‘i’ or ’sch’ into ’sh’, especially with German names.

Another common problem with records of the time, and census records are another good example of this, is the flowery, and sometimes, illegible handwriting that would cause people to guess at how a name was spelled, which could lead to, though surely unintentional, spelling errors.

As if spelling changes weren’t enough, some people wouldn’t record their formal names consistently. For example, we were reviewing census records and found a person had recorded their name three different ways. Once with a full first and last name, but no middle; another with a full first and last name and a middle initial; and lastly, we found another record with first and middle initials and a full last name.

So… The bottom line when researching your ancestors is to keep an open mind and make sure to try all of the possibilities (no matter how strange they might seem). You never know what you’re going to find!!

Michelle has been scrapbooking for over five years and is the owner of Choubox Scrapbook Design (http://www.creative-scrapbook-layouts.com). Choubox is your source for pre-made scrapbook layouts, quality scrapbook supplies and valuable information on how to start scrapbooking.