To remove the pouch you simply slide the stick or root back under the obi. As with most other personal items, these sticks and roots began to evolve into more and more decorative items. Eventually it developed into an art form which has outlasted the function for which it was intended. Today the Kimono has been replaced with western clothes and items are carried in pocket, but the art of Netsuke carving lives on. Netsuke have been created from many different materials, the most popular being ivory.
Ivory is perhaps the perfect medium for carving intricate works of art.
It is soft enough to be worked with hand tools, yet strong enough to endure time and use. There is also something special about the soft glow of Ivory that makes it irresistible. Since the ban on the international trade of Elephant Ivory, many substitutes have come into use. Mammoth Ivory is from the tusks of the Wooly Mammoth, the ancestor of the present day elephants. The mammoth roamed most of the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years before becoming extinct during the last ice age.