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Overview·Kantei·Designations·Work Types·Signatures·Lineage·School
OverviewKanteiDesignationsWork TypesSignaturesLineageSchool
  1. Schools
  2. Yokoya
  3. Yanagawa
  4. Ishiguro
  5. Koreyoshi

Ishiguro Koreyoshi

是美

Jūyō
Vol. 1, No. 31 · Tsuba

Ishiguro Koreyoshi

是美

4 ranked works

ProvinceMusashiEralate Edo-Meiji (ca. 1832–1887)SchoolYokoya>Yanagawa>IshiguroTraditionMachiboriTeacherMasayoshiSpecialtieskozuka, fuchi-kashira, tsuba, menukiTypeTosogu MakerCodeISH005
4Jūyō Tōken

Overview

Ishiguro Koreyoshi was the son of Masayoshi, whom the identifies as "a representative master of the Ishiguro school." His common name was Kanjiro, and he employed the art names Jukakushi and Kansai. Koreyoshi trained under Koretsune of the school, and in forming his professional name took one character from his master Koretsune and one from his father Masayoshi — a gesture of lineage that bound the school's successive generations. Possessing, in the 's assessment, ability that "surpassed that of his father," Koreyoshi contributed together with Masayoshi to the continued prosperity of the Ishiguro lineage. Works bearing Tenpo-era dates are known, and his survival is confirmed as late as Meiji 20 (1887), placing him among the last major figures of the school's classical production.

Koreyoshi worked in the established Ishiguro idiom of with on grounds, yet brought to it a distinctive refinement of color and naturalistic observation. His bird-and-flower subjects — among which the golden pheasant may be called the school's hallmark — are rendered through meticulous chiselwork that achieves "great splendor without any vulgarity." He employed an unusually wide palette of inlay metals, including scarlet copper, silver, and , deployed with what the examiners recognize as "an outstanding sense of color." His display rounded sculptural carving (yobori) on gold grounds, while his and feature the characteristic ' (gold-backed reverse) of the Ishiguro workshop. In certain works, his approach takes on a naturalistic, sketch-like quality that sets his production apart from the more formal manner of his predecessors.

The has consistently recognized Koreyoshi as an artist in whom the Ishiguro school's distinctive character finds its fullest late-period expression. His complete fitting sets are praised as works that leave "nothing of the Ishiguro school's distinctive character unexpressed," while his finest are described as achieving a brilliance "akin to the nishiki-e color woodblock prints then in vogue." Through a superb fusion of high-relief carving, richly modeled gold ornament, and polychrome inlay, Koreyoshi's production represents the summation of the Ishiguro tradition — works of "great visual mass and presence" that embody the school's legacy of sumptuous yet disciplined metalwork.

Kantei

3 descriptive axes: material (shakudo worked in fine nanako above all) x technique (dense high relief and applied suemon with rich gold, silver and colour-metal iro-e) x themes (the bird-and-flower realism of the Ishiguro house, the golden pheasant its house subject). The corpus is too thin (4 pieces) to fix a stylistic discriminator that separates Koreyoshi from his own school: everything in it is the shared house foundation, so the load-bearing separator is honestly his own signature, the documented son-of-Masayoshi line, and a single record's praise that he surpassed his father.

Ishiguro Koreyoshi, common name Kanjiro, is the son of the third master Ishiguro Masayoshi and a representative late hand of the Ishiguro school of kinko. He trained under the school's Koretsune and formed his art-name by taking one character from each, the 是 of his teacher Koretsune and the 美 of his father Masayoshi. With his father he carried the Ishiguro house to its prosperity, and the records say he was a master who surpassed his father. A metalwork artist working into the Meiji era, with dated works of the Tenpo years and a life confirmed to 1887, he renders the bird-and-flower realism that the Ishiguro made their own, in dense high relief and rich colour-metal iro-e on -; the corpus is very thin, four pieces, all bearing his signature and all in the shared house manner.

Diagnostic discriminators

unique vs the rest of the Ishiguro school, who work the same house manner

Material (grounds)

worked in fine, orderly above all, with solid gold ground on besides; copper-red, silver and are used among the colour-metals.

Technique

Dense, fine high relief and applied gold-crest with rich gold and colour-metal iro-e and flat inlay, the in ; the records praise his fine chisel-work and his masterly handling of colour.

Themes (bird-and-flower)

Bird-and-flower above all, the manner the Ishiguro made their own: the golden pheasant their house subject, with sparrows among rock-peony, the raptor seizing the pheasant from a tree, the sparrow with bamboo; and one auspicious-themes set of the longevity god Jurojin, the dancing crane, the parent-and-child tortoise with pine, bamboo and plum.

Bird-and-flower realism

The golden pheasant, sparrows among rock-peony, the raptor and the pheasant, the sparrow with bamboo, rendered in a drawing-from-life manner with dense, colourful realism on orderly .

Full iconography

Signature chronology

Recorded signatures

Documentary note

He signs the core name Ishiguro Koreyoshi with a throughout, and on the three-piece sets the are cut as the split short-strip Ishiguro and Koreyoshi; the whole corpus is signed and carries no go-prefixed form. The records give his common name as Kanjiro (one writes it -jiro with a variant character) and add the alternate go Jukakushi and Kansai, named in one only and never cut as a signature. They place him as the son of Masayoshi who studied under the school's Koretsune and joined a character from each, the 是 of Koretsune and the 美 of Masayoshi, to make Koreyoshi; he has dated work of the Tenpo years and his life is confirmed to 1887. The 是 he shares with his teacher Koretsune, the 美 with his father Masayoshi and the line's Masahide and Masahiro; he is told apart by the full Ishiguro Koreyoshi.

Scholarship

One setsumei states outright that he was a master surpassing his father (父にまさる名工), naming a bird-and-flower tsuba set his finest work; presented honestly as a single-record judgment, not a corpus-wide rate.

Designations

Kokuhō—
Jūyō Bunkazai—
Jūyō Bijutsuhin—
Gyobutsu—
Tokubetsu Jūyō—
Jūyō Tōken4

Elite Standing

0.02 across 4 designated works

Top 32% among makers

Work Types

Distribution across 4 ranked works

Mitokoromono
250%
Other
125%
Tsuba
125%

Signatures

Signature types across 4 ranked works

Currently Available

Lineage

TeacherMasayoshi
Koreyoshi

Ishiguro School

Other artisans of the Ishiguro school

  1. 1.Masayoshi政美4 for sale30designated
  2. 2.Masatsune政常1 for sale17designated
  3. 3.Masaaki政明16designated
  4. 4.Koretsune是常2 for sale4designated
  5. 5.Mitsutsune光常1designated
  6. 6.Masachika政近2designated
  7. 7.Masatsune政恒1designated
  8. 8.Masaharu政春1designated

Koreyoshi

Koreyoshi(是美) was a maker of Japanese sword fittings (tōsōgu) of the Ishiguro school in Musashi province, active during the late Edo-Meiji (ca. 1832-1887) period.

The work follows the Machibori tradition.

Designated works by Koreyoshi include 4 Jūyō.