The carving of this netsuke is very well rendered and represents the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese zodiac (生肖) is the classification scheme that assigns an animal to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Depicted are the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The netsuke is again signed by that prolific Hong Kong artist Songshan (松山) whose name would read Songzan in Japanese. Height 3.4 cm. Width 4.2 cm. Depth 4.0 cm.