The Hare With Amber Eyes

In Part 4, the narrative turns from trauma to renewal as the author’s great-uncle creates a new home for the netsuke in Tokyo. Iggie’s restoration of the Japanese carvings to the country of their origin underscores the symbolic meaning of the netsuke as Objects of Memory and Continuity. Against the backdrop of a Tokyo devastated by US bombing, Iggie’s display of the netsuke in a new vitrine is represented as a symbolic act of healing, illustrating the restorative power of art and highlighting vitrines as a symbol in the memoir. Furthermore, the identification of the netsuke makers contrasts with the erasure of identity depicted in Part 3. The story of the netsuke carver Tomokazu, who immersed himself in studying deer before sculpting them, underscores the intertwined nature of artmaking and identity. De Waal’s observation that he instinctively knows Tomokazu studied turtles when he handles one of his netsuke suggests that these works communicate an essential aspect of the artist’s essence. In addition, this anecdote reinforces de Waal’s belief that creating art requires time, care, and patience.

The setting of Japan recontextualizes the netsuke as symbols of cross-cultural exchange. De Waal emphasizes how the Japanese carvings harmonized with Iggie’s “dramatic interior of golden screens and scrolls, paintings and Chinese pots” (354), again invoking the motif of gold. Once fetishized by Charles Ephrussi’s artistic circle as objects of Eastern exoticism, the netsuke “lose their strangeness” and gain realism, becoming “surprisingly accurate renditions” (355) of everyday Japanese items and creatures. In handling the netsuke, Iggie’s Japanese guests reanimate them through their understanding of the carvings’ cultural references. At the same time, the netsuke sat comfortably alongside European paintings that Iggie retrieved from the Palais Ephrussi. De Waal suggests that the comfortable dialogue between cultures in his great-uncle’s home sprang from Iggie’s cosmopolitan background. In contrast to the cultural mimicry that de Waal identifies in the Palais Ephrussi, the décor authentically expressed Iggie’s aesthetic taste.

In these chapters, the author shifts from a focus on cultural heritage and assimilation to the notion of belonging beyond national, racial, or familial boundaries. Iggie, a Jewish Austrian exile and former US soldier, had “the chance to reinvent himself” (371) in Japan and found his spiritual home there. Whereas earlier generations sought legitimacy through assimilation into Europe’s elite, Iggie achieved a more enduring sense of belonging. Discovering a lifelong partner in Jiro, Iggie’s unconventional decision to adopt his lover formalized their bond and ensured Jiro’s legal and familial security. Iggie’s creation of a chosen family mirrored the stability and legacy that the Ephrussi family once represented. Meanwhile, his decision to revert to his Austrian citizenship and become a banker, “a hundred years after his grandfather Ignace opened the bank in Vienna off the Schottengasse” (377), suggests a selective return to his heritage, on his own terms.