Asian, Japanese Netsuke showing a doctor and patient, Japanese, late 19th century

Asian, Japanese Netsuke showing a doctor and patient, Japanese, late 19th century. A netsuke is a form of miniature sculpture developed in Japan over a period of several hundred years. They were often beautifully decorated with elaborate carving, lacquer work, or inlays, and were attached to the end of a cord and tucked into the sash of the kimono. This example is signed by its maker, Chikaaki, and depicts a doctor taking a patients pulse. Physicians in the Far East felt 12 pulses, six in each wrist, before treating the patient. The pulses corresponded to the meridians for chi energy. Their features were described in poetic terms such as ïlike water dripping through a roof or ïsmooth as a flowing stream. To the doctors side is a leather bag which would have contained acupuncture needles, herbs and other medicines. ©SSPL/Science Museum