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 hardwearing. 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 a fox-mask.

This type of mask would have appeared during the comic interludes of a No drama called Kyogen. These comic plays contained elements of both satire and slapstick and were held for around ten minutes using a collection of familiar masked characters. In this play the fox assumes a human form to stop a hunter from using fox traps. Unable to ignore the smell of food the man then falls into the same traps and turns back into a fox.