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Overview·Historical importance·Designations·Kantei·Work Types·Signatures·Lineage·School
OverviewHistorical importanceDesignationsKanteiWork TypesSignaturesLineageSchool
  1. Schools
  2. Yokoya
  3. Omori
  4. Chizuka Hisanori

Omori Chizuka Hisanori

遅塚久則

Jūyō
Vol. 61, No. 210 · Mitokoromono

Omori Chizuka Hisanori

遅塚久則

9 ranked works

Major artist
EraKyōhō–Kansei (1725–1795)PeriodEdoSchoolYokoya>OmoriTraditionMachiboriTypeTosogu MakerCodeMUR009
9Jūyō Tōken

Overview

Otsuzuka Hisanori (active Kyōhō 10–Kansei 7; 1725–1795) was a samurai retainer of the Moriyama Domain, a cadet line of the Mito Tokugawa house, who studied the art of chōkin (metal carving) under Ōmori Teruhide. According to the Moriyama Hanshi Ryakuden, he was "gentle in disposition and earnest and strict in conduct," serving the third lord Yorihiro and the fourth lord Yoriaki as a page with a stipend of thirty . The Natsuo Chōkin Dan further observes that "I have yet to see a work in which he engraved his family name," noting that his carving methods are "worthy of appreciation" and that his is careful, tending toward "a brilliantly colored style." Hisanori thus occupied a distinctive position among late period metalworkers: a warrior-artist whose output was shaped by both martial discipline and refined aesthetic sensibility within the Ōmori lineage.

Hisanori devoted himself to metal carving with the pride of a warrior, and his dense, sumptuous inlay reached a singular level that won widespread admiration. He particularly excelled in designs of birds — peacocks and phoenixes — as well as figural subjects such as the Chinese heroes Guan Yu and Zhou Cang. His treatment of is immediately recognizable: the base metal is made thick, the (placement of flesh) is full and rounded, the raising from the reverse and the pressing-in from the front are emphatically contrasted, and the "waist" portion tightens as though cinched, producing an overall rounded contour. He further enhanced three-dimensionality by carving avian faces in a manner suggestive of fully rounded sculpture, achieving what the describes as "a truly sculptural effect." The employs a wide palette — gold, silver, , and hishoku-dō — applied with minute precision down to the smallest details.

Across his designated works, the consistently praises Hisanori's "dense, minute, and lustrous inlay work" as having reached "an individual, unsurpassed level." His pieces are recognized as fully demonstrating "the artist's particular strengths" and his "true strengths," with a "strongly three-dimensional manner rich in mass and presence." His distinctive sculptural conception of the form — thick ground, rounded modeling, cinched waist, and polychrome brilliance — constitutes a coherent personal idiom within the Ōmori school tradition. Hisanori's oeuvre stands as evidence that the samurai-artisan of the late period could achieve technical and expressive heights of the first order in the service of chōkin.

Historical importance

Where Chizuka Hisanori stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.

随一
Foremost
屈指
Leading
有数
Major
著名
Notable

Select a lens to see how it's measured.

Designations

Kokuhō—
Jūyō Bunkazai—
Jūyō Bijutsuhin—
Gyobutsu—
Tokubetsu Jūyō—
Jūyō Tōken9

Elite Standing

Kantei

Work Types

Distribution across 9 ranked works

Signatures

Signature types across 9 ranked works

Currently Available

Lineage

Chizuka Hisanori
Student
  1. 1.Kikukawa Hisahide菊川久英1 for sale1designated

Omori School

Other artisans of the Omori school

  1. 1.Teruhide英秀1 for sale15designated
  2. 2.Horie Okinari堀江興成1 for sale7designated
  3. 3.Terumitsu英満4designated
  4. 4.Horie Okiyoshi堀江興吉1designated
  5. 5.Kazutomo一知1designated
  6. 6.Mitsutoki満辰1designated
  7. 7.Hidetomo秀知2 for sale2designated
  8. 8.Hidetoshi秀寿2designated

Chizuka Hisanori

Chizuka Hisanori(遅塚久則) was a maker of Japanese sword fittings (tōsōgu) of the Omori school, active during the Kyōhō–Kansei (1725-1795) period.

The work follows the Machibori tradition.

Designated works by Chizuka Hisanori include 9 Jūyō.