The article kind of gets that wrong. Netsuke weren’t containers. They were counterweights from which bags were strung, kind of like a fob on a bag’s drawstring. you would slip the netsuke through the underside of your sash, then it would prevent the bag from falling off. Later, the netsuke got more and more decorative, until finally they were made for their own decorative value rather than as a bag fob. The Met museum, for instance, has a huge collection: http://metmuseum.org/art/collection#!?q=Netsuke&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&sortOrder=asc&offset=0&pageSize=0
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