Anyone know who/what this wooden figure is?

Is it a Kami or Yokai ? Actually, I am thinking some other country in Asia apart from Japan. There are so VERY MANY beings of various sorts in the region.

 

I think probably from Bali/Indonesia - probably a somewhat recent tourist marketed carving. Which Demon/God it represents I'm not too sure. I'm sure @Any Jewelry will be able to help more.

 

Maybe Hanuman(my hanuman carving is my profile pic) - see this thread:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/hanuman-large-carving-where-from.27204/

There's some good information in there about the checkerboard pattern clothing it/he has on too.

 

Yes, Balinese, and it is Hanuman, the Monkey King from the RamaYana.

 

Not something you'd want to wake you up from a deep sleep!

 

Good stuff!

 

Great ! Hanuman - what a character ! He doesn't look or feel new but that doesn't mean he's very old - he may just have been having a difficult time lately.
At 8.5 inches tall, he doesn't seem to be a size worthy of veneration in a temple but perhaps he's a temple "charm". He's certainly a convenient size for transport.

 

https://indonesiacomplete.weebly.com/bali-good-and-bad.html

"Hanuman the king of the monkeys is a central figure in the Ramayana Hindu epic story, coming with his army of monkeys to save Rama's wife Sita from the evil sorcerer Rawana."

 

Heh! It's seems an aggressive stance. He appears ready to give someone a good stiff left with what appears to be a knuckle duster.

 

Well, it looks like you've got all the answers. And yes, it is Hanuman, made in Bali ca 1950.

Clenched fists mean concentration.

Most religious statues for any religion are made for home use, rarely for temple or church use. Temple statues are of top quality, very rare, and very expensive if you can ever find them. So forget temple use for Balinese statues on the market.
Yours is a souvenir, as most Balinese statues are.
He looks like my miniature keris holder, which I posted before in another thread:

 

Very similar ! Any Jewelry, what is it that indicates to you it was made then? All I can imagine is some aspect of his representation that was particular to the period, then, for some reason, changed, possibly the base colour (wild guess).
Interesting point about the clenched fists and this - "Most religious statues for any religion are made for home use...".
Or tourists. And the rest is...loot...?

 

I'd like to clarify that I am very happy when cultural and artistic traditions spread through a society and are made available in forms that can be shared, or when objects representing cultural and artistic forms that have become orphaned from their source and original intent that would otherwise be lost are preserved by collectors.
I'm not happy about those times when sacred or venerated objects are looted through periods of war or occupation or invasion and are then marketed. An example right now is Tibet, or the National Museum of Iraq.

 

Simply the paint and execution, and having seen many of them with the provenance of when they were bought in Bali.
I live in the Netherlands, where many people have a connection with Indonesia. If they migrated to the Netherlands in say 1958, and brought a relatively new Hanuman with them, you've got an indication.

The way Hanuman is represented is traditional. You could say timeless, although there was a development over the centuries.

 

You mean tourists stealing from carvers?
To give you an idea of the scale, an estimated 7 million tourists will visit Bali this year. If they all buy a carving.... Ok not all, but most do, and many buy more than one. We did.

When we visited Bali in 1970 there was only one big, international standard hotel. Now tourists inundate the place. Most people I know now go to Lombok instead. Until the same happens to Lombok.

 

Got it - thank you !

 

No, all power to the carvers. I dont really know how else to put it other than in the post attempting to clarify my thoughts/feelings.
I suspect that souvenir objects undergo a degree of production simplification simply as a result of their intended use and further as demand increases.
Maximus, Russell Crowe's character in the film Gladiator, could have bought those little figurines he carried around from a street vendor or some small shop. Digging them up today wouldn't they be antiquities? But the really good stuff, the best representations of those same beings, would have been in the temples, as you say. Then Rome was sacked and looted and what remained un-destroyed of the good stuff began to move through various hands. We're lucky to have antiquities but at some point a lot of it was loot.
Are there not fine cultural objects being looted today
and collectors acquiring them?
I guess I'm expressing (poorly) a wish that collectors be careful not to support present-day cultural looting, not that I think anyone here does!!!