This image is caused by a book for children where I well remembered an antique engraving illustrating a deep-sea battle of cachalot with a giant squid.

I attempted to restore from memory this picture and to represent how the cachalot grasps and keeps this giant squid. Just as depicted in that book, squid´s eye matches with the place of cachalot´s eye, thus creating an illusion that the squid´s eye is that of the whale.

The cachalot´s skin has the scars of the squid´s bites and tentacles.

The netsuke is carved of walrus tusk and inlaid by two-color mother-of-pearl and by jet.