The netsuke is a toggle. Japanese men used netsuke to suspend various pouches and containers from their sashes by a silk cord. Netsuke had to be small and not too heavy, yet bulky enough to do the job. They needed to be compact with no sharp protruding edges, yet also strong and hard-wearing. Above all, they had to have the means for attaching a cord. Netsuke were made in a variety of forms, the most widely appreciated being the katabori (shape carving), a three-dimensional carving, such as this one in the form of an unidentified immortal holding a fish and a lotus flower.

During the early 17th century, when katabori netsuke were first made, the influence of China was strong and many Chinese books reached Japan. These included works on immortals, spirits and deities that had been published during the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Most notable among them was the profusely illustrated Liexian quanzhuan (Complete Stories of Immortals), published in 1600. It gives a written account of nearly 500 deities, each with an illustration. Such was its popularity that in 1650 it appeared in a Japanese edition as Yusho ressen zenden (Complete Illustrated Lives of Immortals). As practitioners of the Chinese religious-philosophical tradition Taoism, immortals were perfected beings who, through self-cultivation, were able to transcend their normal existence. Despite its Chinese origins, this particular immortal has a distinctly western face. It reflects a fusion of some of the foreign features known to the Japanese at a time when they had limited contact with the outside world owing to the isolationist policies of the Edo period (1600-1868).