What is "okimono"

is a Japanese term meaning "ornament for display; objet d'art; decorative object", typically displayed in a tokonoma "alcove" or butsudan "Buddhist altar".

The Japanese word okimono compounds oku 置く "put; place; set; lay out; assign; station; leave" and mono 物 "thing; object; article". The Oxford English Dictionary defines the loanword okimono, "A standing ornament or figure, esp. one put in a guest room of a house", and records the first usage in 1886 by William Anderson.

An okimono may be a small Japanese carving, similar to, but larger than netsuke. Unlike netsuke, which had a specific purpose, okimono were purely decorative and were displayed in the tokonoma. During the Meiji period many okimono were made for export to the west.