The father of machibori. Yokoya Sōmin walked out of the Gotō workshops and the shōgunal stipend behind them, and founded the free "town carving" that defined Edo fittings for two centuries — katakiribori engraving that cuts like a painter’s brushstroke. From his house descend the great machibori lines that fill this tree: Yanagawa, and through it Ishiguro’s birds-and-flowers ateliers, Tōryūsai, and Kikuoka.
Era
1620 — 1870
Members
127
Kokuhō
0
Jūbun
4
Jūbi
16
Tokujū
19
Jūyō
336
For Sale
71
127smiths0Kokuhō4Jūbun16Jūbi19Tokujū336Jūyō
Branch石黒Ishiguro25 smiths
Branch大森Omorifrom 宗珉20 smiths
Branch菊岡Kikuoka9 smiths
Branch岩本Iwamoto9 smiths
The Edo Yokoya School (横谷) Lineage
The The Edo Yokoya School (横谷), active 1620–1870 in Edo across 127 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 4 Jūbun, 16 Jūbi, 19 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 336 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Edo Yokoya School (横谷) · 1620 – 1870
Somin (宗珉) — Mainline. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Yokoya Somin was born in Edo in Kanbun 10 (1670) under the personal name Tomotsune, and the published sources call him the third-generation master of the Yokoya family, the largest school of Edo metalwork. His grandfather, the first-generation Soyo, had studied with the Goto house and served the shogunate as an official metalworker. Somin likewise entered shogunal service and trained in the hereditary *iebori* manner. Then, finding the convention-bound idiom of the Goto house unsatisfying and "influenced as well by the tastes of the time," he gave up his stipend and worked independently. There he "exercised his abilities to the fullest, achieved great success, and came to be called the founder of *machibori*." He used the common name Chojiro, later Jihei, and the art name Ton'an, and died in Kyoho 18 (1733) at sixty-four.
The published sources tie his designs to the painters of his day. He was on close terms with Kano Tan'yu and with the Kano-trained Hanabusa Itcho, used their under-drawings in his work, and from them developed his own Yokoya lion and his branches of peony. Kozuka such as the Asazuma boat are thought to follow Itcho's designs, and the lion's posture is described as the Yokoya lion formed under Itcho's influence. This basis in contemporary painting is what separated his carving from the formal repertoire of the Goto.
Somin's manner "may broadly be divided into two principal modes": richly modelled *takabori* with polychrome inlay (*iroe*) in gold, silver and *shibuichi*, and *katakiribori*, "a technique he originated." In the first, the published sources praise the abundance of modelling and the play of high and low, joined to a free and open chisel, as showing the bearing of a king, 「圧倒的な肉置きの豊かさと高低の変化は自由闊達な鏨捌きと相俟って、正に王者の風格を堂々とあらわしている」. His *nanako* on *shakudo*, his polished *shibuichi*, and the *sukidashi-bori*, *kebori* and *yobori* he used beside them show a command of the whole Goto-derived craft. In the second mode his chisel shows "pronounced modulation" and "decisive" strokes, "alternating depth and shallowness at will," with "modulations of speed and emphasis that recall ink painting."
Among his own creations are the Yokoya lions, rendered with such immediacy that "one experiences the illusion that the lion might spring forth from the *kozuka*." Another is the vertical *tatezu* composition for kozuka, depicting lions, tigers, horses and other subjects "from the front or from behind," which the published sources, in sixteen of his records, call novel and of great influence on later metalworkers. He also harmonized contrasting finishes and carving methods within one piece: on a tsuba of Fukurokuju the high relief of the front and the *katakiribori* of the back are brought together, a task the published sources call "an exceptionally difficult" one. His *menuki* are carved with a thin modelling and *in'yo-ne* roots, features the published sources note as points of appraisal.
The published sources sum up his work as showing 「横谷一門の統帥としての貫禄と抜群の技術」, the authority of the head of the Yokoya school and outstanding technique. They hold that it stands comparison with the work of the Goto main house, and that his Goto origin and thorough training show plainly in its dignity. Of his lions they repeatedly write that 「他工の追随を許さない厳しさと凄味がある」, a severity and awe-inspiring force other craftsmen could not rival. They credit him with having "opened a new direction through freer, life-sketch-based realism."
Somin's designated record is the strongest of any tosogu artist in the database by designation factor. He has no National Treasures, but four of his sets are Important Cultural Properties, among them a kozuka and kogai of lion and peony; six works are Tokubetsu Juyo and twenty-five Juyo. The Important Cultural Properties are heritage held in trust rather than pieces that trade. His pieces descend through daimyo and collecting houses. The recorded provenance includes the Hosokawa, among them Hosokawa Moritatsu and the Eisei Bunko collection, the Tsugaru, the Shimazu, the Arima and the Sakai of Shonai. No current institutional holder is recorded against the designated pieces. His signed kozuka and menuki at the Juyo and Tokubetsu Juyo ranks come to light only rarely, each a document of the moment when Edo metalwork left the Goto conventions for the freer manner he founded.
Masayoshi (政美) — Mainline. Tokujū, Jūyō. Ishiguro Masayoshi (石黒政美), also read Masami, was a preeminent master of the Ishiguro school, a distinguished lineage of Edo-period metalworkers descended from the Yokoya tradition. Born in An'ei 3 (1774), his common name was Shōzō, and he employed a succession of art names including Jugakusai, Jukakusai, Juōsai, and Juō. He first trained under Sano Naoyoshi of the Yanagawa school before entering the atelier of Ishiguro Masatsune, the founder of the Ishiguro house. In tribute to both teachers, he derived his art name by taking one character from each master's name and substituting the character *mi* (美) for *yoshi* (好), thus arriving at Masayoshi (政美). Extant works bearing the inscription "Third-generation Ishiguro Masayoshi"[[c:1]] confirm that he succeeded as the third head of the family following the second Masatsune. Within the school he was celebrated alongside his fellow pupil Masaaki as forming a "matched pair" of supreme ability, and he trained numerous disciples who carried the Ishiguro manner into the late Edo period.
Masayoshi's technical command encompassed the full repertoire of the Ishiguro school's metalworking vocabulary. His preferred format was a *shakudō* ground finished in dense *nanako-ji* upon which elaborate pictorial compositions were built through *takabori* executed as applied motifs in the *suemon* technique, enriched with lavish polychrome *iroe* employing gold, silver, *shibuichi*, and scarlet copper (*hiirōdō*). His *tsuba*, *fuchi-kashira*, *kozuka*, *kōgai*, and *menuki* frequently formed unified suites—*soroi kanagu* or complete *issaku* sets—demonstrating rigorous thematic coherence across every fitting. While the school's signature *kachō-zu* (flowers-and-birds) subjects predominated, Masayoshi proved equally commanding in martial themes: hawks poised on rocks above raging torrents, raptors fixed upon prey amid aged pines, and dragon-and-tiger compositions rendered through varied relief techniques from *sukidashi-bori* through rounded modeling to full high relief. He also worked with distinction on *shibuichi* *migaki-ji* and *ishime-ji* grounds, and produced refined *katakiribori* and *kebori* line-engraving on solid-gold fittings, as seen in his celebrated "Four Gentlemen" *aikuchi* suite. His works inscribed at the age of seventy-seven and seventy-eight confirm an undiminished creative intensity sustained across decades.
Masayoshi occupies a central place in the history of late Edo metalwork as the artist who brought the Ishiguro school's painterly idiom to its fullest expression. His compositions reveal a pictorial intelligence that extends beyond virtuoso carving: front and reverse surfaces are linked through continuous branches and contrasting water motifs, male and female birds are paired with deliberate compositional care, and the interplay of *a-un* expression lends narrative depth to each scene. The NBTHK examiners have repeatedly noted that his finest pieces represent works in which "Masayoshi's full capabilities are brought to fruition,"[[c:2]] praising both the steadfast precision of his chisel work at the smallest scale and the monumental presence of his high-relief compositions. Whether rendering the opulent splendor of peacocks with peonies or the austere nobility of a solitary hawk upon iron, Masayoshi demonstrated a range and mastery that secured his standing as one of the foremost *tōsōgu* artists of the late Tokugawa period.
Masatsune (政常) — Mainline. Tokujū, Jūyō. Ishiguro Masatsune (stone inscription: 石黒政常), born in Horeki 10 (1760), was the founding master of the Ishiguro school of metalworkers and one of the most celebrated *machibori* (town-carving) artists of the late Edo period. He first apprenticed under Kato Naotsune of the Yanagawa branch, and subsequently studied with Yanagawa Naomasa himself, both part of the broader Yokoya lineage. Upon establishing independence, Masatsune combined one character from each teacher's name — *masa* (政) from Naomasa and *tsune* (常) from Naotsune — to form his professional name. He used the art names Togakushi (東嶽子, later written 東岳子) and, after passing the age of sixty, signed works as "Ishiguro-sai Jumyo Masatsune." His school attracted many gifted pupils, including Masayoshi, Masaaki, Koretsune, Masahide, and Masahiro, and the Ishiguro lineage continued to flourish through successive generations into the Meiji period. He died in Bunsei 11 (1828) at the age of sixty-nine.
Masatsune's technical command encompassed the full repertoire of the *kinko* metalworker. His favored ground was *shakudo* finished with an impeccably regular *nanako-ji*, praised in designation records for its orderly precision. Upon this deep-black surface he executed designs primarily in *takabori* (high relief) enriched with *iroe* (polychrome inlay), deploying a remarkable palette of colored metals — gold, silver, *shibuichi*, *suaka* (scarlet copper), *oborogin*, and *hi-irodo* — to achieve effects of brilliant yet controlled chromatic richness. His *menuki* demonstrate equal mastery of *yobori* (sculptural carving) and *nikubori* (fleshed relief) on solid gold grounds, often employing *okigane* (applied metal) and *suemon-zogan* (applied inlay). A pair of dragon *menuki* reveals his command of the *dashi-keshi* method and precise *sankaku-tagane* (triangular chisel) work adapted from the Goto *iebori* tradition. Whether rendering the minutely differentiated plumage of a raptor, the undulating force of ocean waves expressed through polished relief with gold and silver *ro-zogan* (dew inlay), or the delicate color gradations in a pheasant's breast, Masatsune's chisel strokes are characterized by an honest, finely detailed manner and a clean final polish that imparts an air of dignified refinement.
Masatsune's artistic significance rests upon his transformation of the Yanagawa manner into a distinctly personal idiom centered on bird-and-flower subjects and birds of prey — themes that became the hallmarks of his school. His compositions make masterful use of open space, creating what the NBTHK examiners repeatedly describe as a "clear and limpid spirit." Yet within this decorative brilliance there persists a martial vigor suited to warrior taste, a quality that distinguishes the first generation's work from the more purely ornamental output of later Ishiguro artists. His oeuvre spans *tsuba*, *fuchi-kashira*, *kozuka*, *kogai*, *menuki*, and complete *soroe-kanagu* sets, demonstrating equal facility across every format of sword fitting. As an artist who bridged the Yokoya lineage's classical discipline and the expressive naturalism of the Bunka-Bunsei cultural efflorescence, Masatsune stands among the foremost representative metalworkers of Edo-period Japan.
Teruhide (英秀) — Mainline. Tokujū, Jūyō. A tsuba of the Han general Hankai, signed Ryuusai Omori Teruhide (龍雨斎) with his kao and dated the sixth month of Meiwa 7 (1770), fixes Omori Teruhide in the later eighteenth century and stands among his most praised works. The published sources give his common name as Kisoji (喜惣次) and set out his place plainly. He was the nephew of Omori Eisho, himself a pupil of the great Edo master Yokoya Somin, studied under Eisho and became the second head of the Omori school. One record calls him Eisho's nephew who was later adopted, and another calls him Eisho's son and "a finer hand than his father." Across the records he is the meijin who brought the line to its flourishing, and the Omori, a branch of the Yokoya gate, are said to have grown under him into a large school that prospered.
The commentary credits two creations to Teruhide himself, and it recites them in almost every entry. The first is the three-dimensional breaking-wave design known as the Omori-wave (大森波). The second is a gold flat inlay that recalls maki-e lacquer, called sunago-zogan, chirigami-zogan or nashiji-zogan, which the records say heightened the elegance of his work. The wave is the subject of a fuchi-kashira paired with menuki of a flock of plovers. There the published sources observe that the surging waves, carved in sukidashi-bori, "have height and depth and are truly powerful," while the plovers in sculptural katachibori are full of movement. On a pair of fuchi-kashira the breaking sea is set under the rising sun with a bird of prey. The gold nashiji inlay itself appears on the Hankai tsuba, where the NBTHK names it among the effects that show "Teruhide's exceptional technique" at full stretch.
His usual medium is shakudo worked in nanako, carved in high relief with colour inlay in gold, silver, shibuichi and suaka. The records list his preferred subjects as lions, animals, birds, flowers and figures. He uses hi-irodo, the scarlet copper, for warm accents: on a lion-and-peony tsuba it gives the composition its force, on a pair of lion menuki it colours the tongue, and on a tsuba of Chinese children at play it heightens the colour of the whole. His menuki are cut in solid gold or shibuichi in full katachibori. An iron tsuba of Shoki and a demon, worked in sukidashi high relief, departs from that palette. Of it the NBTHK writes that he took the Nara school as a reference and left visible traces of effort in composition and chiselling, and that here "Teruhide's ability is truly outstanding."
Within this repertoire the lion and peony stand first. On a daisho pair of tsuba the peony opens in full bloom while the lion runs beneath it, and the commentary judges the pair so brilliant that it could be mistaken for the work of the Yanagawa branch of the same Yokoya line. Of the lion-and-peony tsuba signed with his go, it says that the words "brilliance" and "force" rise from the whole surface. His figure subjects are drawn from the warrior and the auspicious traditions: Hankai forcing his way into the enemy camp to save Liu Bang, warriors contending for the lead across the Uji River, the gohei monkey that drives off ill fortune, and Fugen and Monju in solid gold. A raptor plunging on the menuki is answered on the kozuka by a frightened monkey peering from a cave. One fuchi-kashira of peonies is signed as made after a design by the Kano painter Michinobu of the Kobikicho house.
Beyond single fittings, Teruhide made complete sets of mounts for the Ii lords of Hikone, all carrying their tachibana crest in gold on shakudo nanako. A hosodachi koshirae for court dress, signed on the kuchi-kanamono, is called by the published sources a clear surviving example of a maker of the ceremonial tachi used by Edo-period daimyo. A formal daisho koshirae of black lacquer, with his signed tsuba, fuchi, kozuka and kogai, follows the rule for attendance at the shogun's castle. These commissions place his work in the service of a great daimyo house, beside the lion, wave and figure pieces that carry his name.
Teruhide's designated record is fifteen works, two at the Tokubetsu Juyo rank and thirteen at Juyo, and every one is signed. The Tokubetsu Juyo pieces are the Hankai tsuba of Meiwa 7 and the Ii hosodachi koshirae. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties. The provenance on record runs through two daimyo houses: the Ii of Hikone, for the two crested koshirae, and the Hisamatsu Matsudaira of Iyo, for the Fugen and Monju menuki. No current holder is recorded against his works. Fittings by him in the lion-and-peony or wave subjects come to light only from time to time, and a dated or Ryuusai-signed piece is rarer still. Such a piece shows the side of his art the published sources praise most: the high relief and colour inlay of the lion, the peony and the breaking wave.
Mitsuyuki (光行) — Mainline · 1750-1800. Jūbi, Jūyō. Kikuoka Mitsuyuki was born in Kan'en 3 (1750) in Kandakajichō, Edo, and trained under Yanagawa Naomitsu of the Yokoya lineage. Having matured through the guidance of the Yanagawa house, he attained full accomplishment as an artist and went on to establish the Kikuoka school as its founder, creating an independent line characterized by what the NBTHK describes as a "careful and solidly executed" manner of working. His son was Mitsutomo, and his younger brother Mitsumasa; the brothers were influential metalworkers in Edo and were also well known as *bunjin* — men of letters active as *haikai* poets. Both adopted the inherited artistic sobriquet "Senryō," passed down from their forebears, and Mitsuyuki styled himself "third-generation Senryō." He employed several art names throughout his career, including Doppōsai, Saika-an, Katsukenji, and Suiminsha. Dated works bear inscriptions from Tenmei 1 (1781) and Kansei 9, and he died in Kansei 12 (1800) at the age of fifty-one.
Mitsuyuki's characteristic method employs *shakudō nanako-ji* grounds with gold crests (*kinmon*), gold backing (*kin'ura*), and Yokoya-style high-relief carving (*takabori*) enhanced with applied ornament (*suemon*) and polychrome metal coloring (*iroe*). His *menuki* are typically executed in solid gold (*kinmuku*) using rounded, sculptural carving (*yōbori*). Within this idiom, *shishi* were his greatest specialty — the NBTHK observes that his lion subjects "closely resemble what are termed 'Yokoya shishi' and 'Yanagawa shishi,'" and his level of technique is "recognized as comparable to that of Sōmin and Naomasa," with some works displaying "a level of skill approaching that of Sōmin." His *menuki* shishi are singled out as "not only in the manner of Sōmin but even more imposing than typical Yanagawa shishi, projecting a particularly bold and valiant presence." Beyond lions, he produced subjects including animals, birds, human figures, and Niō guardian deities, and he was adept at composing *mitokoromono* and *nisomono* sets in which each element receives individualized treatment — varying postures and compositions to avoid repetition and achieve what the examiners call "variation and motion."
Across the NBTHK setsumei, Mitsuyuki's work is consistently praised for its "precise and steadfast carving skill" displayed "to its fullest extent," and for compositions executed with "dignity" and a "robust and forceful quality." The examiners describe his workmanship as "careful and thorough throughout," noting that his finest pieces "fully demonstrate the high level of Mitsuyuki's technique." His position within the tradition is that of an artist who, having fully absorbed the training of the Yanagawa house, established a lineage that preserved the Yokoya–Yanagawa heritage while achieving independent artistic identity — producing works "composed with a notably dignified, elevated tone" that are deemed "worthy of admiration" and recognized as excellent representatives of the late Edo *machibori* tradition.
Konkan (昆寛) — Mainline. Jūyō. Iwamoto Konkan was born in Edo in the first year of Enkyo (1744) under the family name Asai. He initially used the given name Ryo, later changing it to Konkan. Because the fifth-generation head Ryokan died young, Konkan — who had been a junior fellow disciple — succeeded as the sixth-generation head of the Iwamoto house. The Iwamoto lineage was originally of the Yokoya tradition; however, Konkan studied the carving methods of the Nara school, centering especially on the work of Yasuchika. By incorporating the strengths of both the Yokoya and Nara schools and bringing them to completion, he established an artistic manner that is distinctly *Edomae* — thoroughly stylish and quintessentially *iki* in the true Edo sense[[c:1]]. He also used the art name Hakuhotei and the studio name Shushodō.
Konkan's technical range is remarkable for its breadth and consistency at the highest level. He worked with equal command across *shakudō*, *shibuichi*, *suaka*, brass (*shinchū*), and polished iron (*tetsu migaki-ji*), employing grounds from precisely executed *nanako-ji* to *chirimen-ishime-ji* and *migaki-ji*. His signature method combines deeply emphatic *takabori* with *suemon-zōgan* and polychrome metal inlay (*iroe*) in gold, silver, *shakudō*, *shibuichi*, and copper, at times further enriched with *aogai* shell and *oborogin*. His carving extends from bold high relief to the delicate precision of *kebori* line work, *sukidashi-bori*, and openwork (*sukashi*), with triangular chisel marks (*sankaku-tagane*) applied for forceful emphasis. Whether rendering the individual scales of a fish, the faint glow of a hazy moon through scattered *suaka* fragments, or the flowing surface of a river, his chisel work achieves minute detail[[c:4]] without sacrificing compositional dynamism. His favored subjects — birds, fish, dragons, and landscape scenes — are expressed with vivid life and a realism that conveys the sense of imminent motion.
Konkan stands as one of the foremost Edo-period *tōsōgu* artists, a master whose synthesis of the Yokoya and Nara traditions produced something distinctly his own. His works demonstrate outstanding compositional power[[c:2]], a capacity to integrate generous open space with concentrated narrative, and an exceptional harmony of colored metals. From formally matched *aoi-mon* koshirae executed on commission to freely conceived naturalistic subjects, from the solemn majesty of a Dainichi Nyorai *tsuba* to the spirited immediacy of a cormorant-fishing scene, his oeuvre reveals broad-ranging technical ability united by a consistent artistic personality. The deep, emphatic carving, the careful advance planning in execution[[c:3]] and overall conception, and the thoroughly urbane sensibility that characterizes his output together confirm Konkan's place among the leading practitioners of the naturalistic, sketch-from-life approach in late Edo metalwork.
Soyo (宗與) — Mainline. Tokujū, Jūyō. Yokoya Soyo was born in Edo in Genroku 13 (1700), the second son of Yokoya Soju, with an elder brother named Eisei. At the request of others he became the adopted son of Yokoya Somin, and in Kyoho 18 (1733), after Somin's death, he took over the family work at thirty-four and kept the distinguished Yokoya name; in his later years he used the art name Shokei. The published sources describe him as inheriting his father's manner, skilled in both high relief and *katakiribori*, and "among the many metalworkers called *machibori*, an outstanding presence"[[c:1]].
His usual work, they write, is *katakiribori* on polished *shibuichi*[[c:2]], the single-sided chisel line that Somin created. On a polished *oborogin* tsuba of bamboo and tiger, his favoured form and method, the commentary praises a chisel that sets bold, powerful *katakiribori* beside delicate *kebori*. On a *shakudo* tsuba of lion and peony it notes how he uses chisels of different widths, the strong *katakiribori* and fine *kebori* together, and how the gold *sayagata* inlay on the rim brings colour to a plain surface. A *wakizashi* mounting carries his fittings throughout, all on the theme of the gods of good fortune, the tsuba, *fuchigashira* and *kozuka* in *shibuichi katakiribori*.
The other side of his work is high relief with colour inlay on *shakudo nanako-ji*. The published sources say such pieces are few[[c:3]], yet among them they see many fine works with the ability and dignity of Somin's successor[[c:4]]. The Yokoya lion, the house subject that began with Somin, appears on a two-piece *kozuka* and *kogai*. A *kozuka* shows a large kirin rising through auspicious clouds, and his Omori Hikoshichi *kozuka* and Fukurokuju *kozuka* are each called among his finest, the eyes and hands of the figures so alive they seem about to move. A tsuba of horses follows Somin's horse faithfully, and another, of eight horses in *shakudo* alone with only the eyes in gold, shows his drawing from life; its rim was later restored by Natsuo.
His fullest work is a matched set of lion-and-peony fittings, tsuba, *fuchigashira* and *menuki*. It was designated Juyo in 1960 and Tokubetsu Juyo in 1978, and both commentaries stress its rarity: a high-relief tsuba is "extremely rare among his works"[[c:5]], and the large size and completeness of the set make it probably his masterpiece. Another set carries documents of its own making. On a kirin *kozuka* with matching *menuki* he wrote his own origami, which show that the work dates to Horeki 13 (1763), the *menuki* finished in the tenth month and the *kozuka* in the twelfth.
He signs Soyo with a *kao*, cut powerfully in *kaisho* script, the *menuki* signed on a small tablet. The published sources read him through Somin throughout: the lion, the horse and the *katakiribori* all come from the father, while in a crawling-dragon *kozuka* they also find the freshness of *machibori* added to the traditional house carving[[c:6]].
His record is thirteen designated works, one at Tokubetsu Juyo and twelve at Juyo. One kirin *kozuka* descends from the Tsugaru house of Mutsu. The *katakiribori* pieces are the more usual, and a high-relief Soyo set appears only rarely.
Nobusada (宣貞) — Mainline · Edo mid. Tokujū. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Other smiths
Genchin (元珍) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Haruaki (春明) — Mainline. Kono Haruaki (春明, also read Shunmei), common name Kono Bunzo, was born in Edo in Tenmei 7 (1787) and at fifteen entered the workshop of Yanagawa Naoharu, of the Yokoya line. He first signed Haruto and changed his name to Haruaki in the Bunka era. Around Bunsei 4 or 5 he was appointed Hokkyo, and soon after he rose to Hogen, the rank that appears in nearly every signature on record. The published sources count him one of the representative Edo metalwork artists of the age of Goto Ichijo, and record that "he was called Haruaki of the East against Ichijo of the West"[[c:1]]. He trained many pupils and died in Echigo in Ansei 4 (1857).
His hand rests on the pictorial carving of the Yanagawa school, yet the published sources hold that "his ideal seems to have lain with the Goto house"[[c:2]]. Taking his teacher Naoharu together with Yokoya Somin and the Goto house as the sources of his method, he went on to a domain of his own. His shakudo is of the quality called "the wet black of a crow's feather"[[c:3]], and on it he sets brilliant gold and a wide range of coloured metals in a realistic, elegant picture, his takabori iro-e outstanding. In the details, the sources note, "the weighty chisel manner of the Goto school can be recognised"[[c:4]].
His techniques range widely. He works shakudo nanako, polished shibuichi and shibuichi ishime, iron, and solid gold, in high relief, sukidashi takabori and katachi-bori menuki, with hira-zogan inlay, katakiri-bori and the fine hairline of shigure rain. A kozuka of chrysanthemums made at fifty-six is called "more minutely and richly worked than usual"[[c:5]]. A tsuba of a kappa reaching for a cucumber, made in Tenpo 14 at fifty-seven, shows gold surihegashi and a tiny frog inlaid in shakudo on the reverse, with shigure kebori and katakiri-bori water. On a fuchi-kashira in solid gold a crowd of tortoises is carved so that each face and each shell differs.
His subjects run from the Goto canon to the playful. A Kurikara dragon mitokoromono is made with the Goto house in mind in both subject and technique, and its rare signature Hogen Haruaki belongs to a few works of his prime in the Bunsei era. Beside it stand the warrior Yoshiie reading an ambush from the broken line of geese, the guardian Nio in red copper with gold and silver, the immortals Gama and Tekkai, a horned owl at night, Okame under the moon, Fukurokuju, and a kozuka of the poet Sogi whose accompanying blade carries his verse on winter rain. The sources find in his work a light, witty Edo taste, and of a tsuba of the Tanabata festival they write that it is "finished as a work brimming with the feeling that only Haruaki commands"[[c:6]].
He was a restless traveller, and his signatures document it. In the Bunsei years he travelled through Tohoku and northern Kanto, making pieces on commission for wealthy patrons and farming families and leaving several fine works in Sendai. The Tanabata tsuba of Bunsei 11 is signed as made at Kamegasaki in the Shonai region, and in his late Kaei and Ansei years he went to Echigo, adding inscriptions that record his travels. He also used the art name Jippo-o, the old man of the ten directions, on menuki and a tsuba. A spring landscape tsuba with swallows and dandelions, made when he was past sixty, is described as fresh and lively despite his age.
For the collector Haruaki is a leading bakumatsu Edo master with a substantial designated record: eighteen works at the Juyo level, among them tsuba, kozuka, menuki, a mitokoromono and two complete wakizashi mountings fitted with his work, one with each fitting dated and signed Hogen. Two kozuka came down through the Ryushido collection. He has no higher designations. Signed pieces of his appear from time to time, and a fine dated work in his richly coloured high relief is a rewarding find for a collector of late Edo metalwork.
Kanri (寛利) — Mainline · 1776-1815. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kiryusai Somin (起龍斎宗珉) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Koretsune (是常) — Mainline. Ishiguro Koretsune was the eldest son of the first-generation Masatsune, the founding master of the Ishiguro school within the broader Yokoya lineage. Known by the common name Shukichi, he employed the art names Togakushi and Shuhosai. Together with the second-generation Masatsune, Koretsune served as a substitute maker (*daisaku*) for his father, assuming a central role in the workshop's prolific output during the late Edo period. He is further credited with having provided technical guidance to the first-generation Koreyoshi, thereby transmitting the school's methods to the next generation. It is recorded that Koretsune died in the prime of life, lending a particular rarity to his surviving oeuvre.
Koretsune's carving methods are characterized by the NBTHK as "dignified and sumptuous, yet steadfast and reliable." Working principally on *shakudo* *nanako-ji* grounds, he excelled in bold *takabori* with polychrome *iroe* employing gold, silver, *shakudo*, *shibuichi*, and *hi-irodo* (scarlet copper). His command of sculptural depth is especially notable: by subtly lowering the *hiraniku* from the *seppa-dai* toward the rim, he achieved a heightened sense of perspective that transforms the tsuba surface into what the examiners describe as "a magnificent and excellent screen-painting transformed into metalwork." His bird-and-flower subjects — from phoenix and paulownia to raptorial birds upon aged plum trees — display vigorous, spreading forms and a courageous bearing that constitute "the very essence of the Ishiguro school."
Koretsune's significance rests both in his role as the vital link between the first-generation Masatsune and the school's later flourishing, and in the exceptional quality of his individual production. The NBTHK has consistently praised works in which "Koretsune's full strengths are amply displayed[[c:1]]," noting in particular his lavish yet controlled use of gold and his ability to render subjects with an immediacy "such that the bird seems about to burst forth from the surface." Because examples by Koretsune are acknowledged to be scarce, each surviving work is valued not only as a demonstration of supreme craftsmanship but also as "important material for the study of the Ishiguro school[[c:2]]."
Naoyoshi (直好) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kiyotoshi (清寿) — Mainline. Tanaka Seiju, whose personal name was Tanaka Bunjiro, was born in Edo in Bunka 1 (1804) as the son of the Musashi Province *tsuba* maker Tanaka Fusajiro. He lived in Shibai-cho, adjacent to Shiba Shinzenza-cho, and trained as a *tsuba* maker under Goto Sojiro Masanori, who had connections with Goto Seijo. However, Seiju himself favored the broader field of *kinko* (decorative metalwork) and pursued study largely through self-directed learning. Inheriting his father's art name, he styled himself Toryusai. He also maintained a close association with Goto Ichijo, and in step with contemporary taste he perfected a stylish, distinctive personal manner---the *Toryusai style*---that was uniquely his own[[c:1]]. He is counted as one of the "three great masters of Bakumatsu metalwork" (*Bakumatsu san meiko*). He rivaled the fame of Goto Ichijo in Kyoto[[c:5]] and, like Ichijo, was granted the rank of *Hogen*. In Koka 2 (1845) he was promoted to *Hokyo*, and in the following year advanced to *Hogen*. He cut supplementary inscriptions such as *Ryuju*, *Jiryu*, *Ga-ikkaku*, and *Ikka-shiki*---phrases asserting artistic independence and personal style. While training many disciples, he also left numerous masterworks; he died in Meiji 9 (1876) at the age of seventy-three.
Seiju assimilated with great skill the carving methods of the Goto family and the Yanagawa family, among others, yet forged from these an independent manner marked by notably fresh designs and an ingenious, Edo-flavored sensibility[[c:4]]. His technical range encompassed *sukidashi-bori* and *takabori* (high-relief carving), *suemon-zogan* (flush inlay), *hira-zogan* (flat inlay), *iroe* (polychrome metalwork) deploying gold, silver, *shakudo*, *shibuichi*, *suaka*, and brass, as well as *nunome-zogan* (textile-pattern inlay) and *sumi-zogan* (ink-painting-effect inlay)[[c:2]]. He worked fluently in both iron and *shakudo* grounds, and his handling of iron plate---the forging, the polished surface, the turned-back rim construction, and the fitting of *sekigane* at the *nakago-ana*---are consistently identified as hallmarks of his hand. Praised as a "magician of colored metals," he displayed minute yet brilliantly decorative *irogane* inlay and *iroe* across an extensive range of subjects: figure compositions, birds and animals, literary and narrative themes drawn from the *Taketori Monogatari* and *Tsurezuregusa*, folk tales such as "Kachi-kachi Yama" and the Dragon Palace legend, auspicious motifs, and witty conceits including anthropomorphized frogs and the "Daruma-in-absence" design. His workshop flourished widely, and the range of his designs is extensive; figure subjects as well as birds and animals were among his special strengths.
The NBTHK's appraisals consistently characterize Seiju's productions as works of notably high dignity and completion[[c:3]] that could only have been achieved by an artist of his caliber. His distinctive character is felt throughout each piece, with the evaluative language emphasizing that his sensibility, skill, and conception all operate in full concert. Works are described as possessing a solemn yet unpretentious taste and a calm, tasteful impression even when gold inlay is used abundantly. His compositions are recognized for their urbane wit and stylish playfulness---the *okashimi* (humorous charm) that strongly conveys his sense of fashionable Edo flair. The assessments trace a coherent arc from early productions, where a *reisho*-like signature style and high technical accomplishment are already evident, through the mature period, where both design and carving technique achieve an impressive degree of completion, to late works signed *Ikka-shiki* and *Juso Hogen* that display the full vigor of his prime. Throughout, the NBTHK affirms that his works fully demonstrate the technical capabilities that could be achieved by Seiju---an artist who mastered the world of *kinko* through independent study and whose proud resolve is legible in every detail of his craft.
Mitsumasa (光政) — Mainline · 1759-1824. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsutoshi (光利) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naomasa (直政) — Mainline. Yanagawa Naomasa was born in Edo in Genroku 5 (1692) and initially bore the common name Heijiro, later changed to Sanzaemon. He entered the workshop of Yokoya Somin and quickly distinguished himself as an outstanding talent within that circle. Through establishing his own following, Naomasa founded what became known as the Yanagawa school, a lineage that carried forward the Yokoya manner into the mid-Edo period and beyond. Beginning with his adopted heir, the second-generation Naomitsu, and the third-generation Naoharu, and with the emergence of figures such as Yanagawa Naokatsu and Kikuchi Jokatsu, the prosperity of the Yanagawa line was remarkable. Naomasa remained active until Horeki 7 (1757).
The Yanagawa school inherited and perpetuated the characteristic Yokoya-style methods: *shakudo nanako-ji* grounds worked in *takabori* with polychrome metalwork (*iroe*). Naomasa's works often call to mind his teacher and are characterized by a powerful and dignified presence[[c:3]]. His carving employs a thickly modeled *takabori* technique — what the NBTHK describes as richly modeled high-relief carving (*koniku-bori*)[[c:2]] — together with gold and silver *iroe*, achieving compositions that brim with martial spirit and authority. He is known to have worked after Somin's own compositions, and while the NBTHK notes that the placement of flesh (*nikuoki*) in such works occasionally lacks the force of the originals, Naomasa's distinctive carving manner brings these pieces close to their models.
Naomasa occupies a position of singular importance as the founder of one of the principal machibori lineages of the Edo period. The NBTHK consistently recognizes works in which "Naomasa's true merits are fully brought to the fore[[c:1]]" and praises pieces where "the Yanagawa-school manner is displayed without reservation." Signed works bearing the explicit inscription "disciple of Somin" are noted as being of particular value and importance. Surviving matched *daisho* sets from his hand are comparatively few, lending additional significance to such examples. As the artist who established the Yanagawa school and achieved renown in his own right, Naomasa's legacy resides in the enduring vitality of the tradition he founded.
Toshinobu (利信) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Ikkan (一寛) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masahide (政英) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshikage (寿景) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Chizuka Hisanori (遅塚久則) — Mainline · 1725-1795. 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 *koku*[[c:1]]. 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 *iroe* is careful, tending toward "a brilliantly colored style."[[c:2]] Hisanori thus occupied a distinctive position among late Edo 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 *iroe* 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 *menuki* is immediately recognizable: the base metal is made thick, the *nikuoki* (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 NBTHK describes as "a truly sculptural effect." The *iroe* employs a wide palette — gold, silver, *suaka*, and *hishoku-dō* — applied with minute precision down to the smallest details.
Across his designated works, the NBTHK 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 *menuki* 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 Edo period could achieve technical and expressive heights of the first order in the service of *chōkin*.
Hidetomo (秀知) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Hidetoshi (秀寿) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Horie Okinari (堀江興成) — Mainline. Horie Kosei first studied under Hamano Masayuki, using the name Masusui. In Meiwa 6 (1769), while still in his twenties, he encountered the death of his teacher Masayuki, after which he newly entered the school of Omori Eishu. He was granted permission to use one character from his master's name and changed his art name to Eishun. He also became affiliated as a disciple of Ozaki Naomasa, a craftsman of Goto lineage, absorbing the methods of the mainline house-carving tradition. After establishing himself independently he adopted the name Kosei. Later he served as a *kakae-ko* -- an officially retained craftsman -- of the Hachisuka daimyo house of Awa Province, and trained many pupils and successors within his circle.
Kosei's technical command reflects the convergence of three lineages: the Hamano school's naturalism, the Omori school's structural discipline, and the Goto family's dignified *takabori* and *iroe* methods. His preferred materials are *shakudo* *nanako-ji* grounds enriched with polychrome inlay using gold, silver, and *suaka*, often finished with reverse gilding (*kin'ura*). Compositions range from matched sets of saddled horses rendered with gold crests in the Goto manner, to the Twelve Months of Birds and Flowers -- an hereditary treasure of the Hachisuka house -- based on poetic designs from Fujiwara no Teika's waka. In his later years, works such as *sanshomono* with shishi motifs employ *kezuritsugi* construction combining gold and *shakudo* to create visual variation. The *menuki*, frequently executed in solid gold (*kinmuku*), display richly modeled sculptural carving (*yobori*) of full, ample form.
The NBTHK consistently characterizes Kosei's production as embodying a dignified style modeled after Goto taste, yet enlivened by the innovative character associated with *machibori*. His works are described as possessing "high dignity" and "an elegant, courtly taste," with motifs treated in a "taut, crisp expression" that demonstrates "the full range of his abilities." Even in pieces that strongly emulate the Goto family style, the assessments note skill "well worth close attention" and a "chic, sophisticated design sense" with an "urbane, polished finish" -- qualities that distinguish Kosei as a consummate synthesizer of the major mid-Edo metalworking traditions.
Katsura Eiju (桂永寿) — Mainline. Katsura Eiju is known through two designated works: a matched set of fittings with a carp design, designated Juyo Tosogu in 1977, and a tsuba of eight fine horses, designated in 2005. The published sources give his background in the same terms on both occasions. He was a native of Kurume in Chikugo Province, studied under Yokoya Eisei and later became a pupil of the second-generation Soko (宗興); he was retained as a craftsman by the Arima family, lords of the Kurume domain, worked from the Meiwa and An'ei eras through Tenmei and Kansei, and used the art name Shoyoshi (逍遥子).
His manner, as the published sources describe it, follows the Yokoya tradition: *shakudo nanako-ji* worked in *takabori* with polychrome *iroe*. His subjects include *shishi*, dragons and tigers, and he also studied the work of Yokoya Somin closely enough to make faithful copies of it.
The carp set of *kozuka* and *fuchi-kashira*, with *menuki* signed in a split *tanzaku-mei* Katsura Eiju, is such a copy. The design of carp swimming through waves is known among Somin's works, executed in *oborogin*, and Eiju's set reproduces that model in *oborogin* with *nanako-ji*, *takabori* and *iroe*. The published sources judge it frankly: 「この作は宗珉の作に及ばないまでも、彼の力作の一つである」 (although it does not reach the level of Somin's work, it is one of his forceful efforts).
The tsuba of 2005 is a round *shakudo nanako-ji* plate with a gold *fukurin* and a *kozuka-hitsu*, signed Eiju with *kao*. Five horses run on the *omote* and three on the *ura*, at play and at rest across an open plain, coloured in gold, silver, *shibuichi* and *shakudo*. The carving is described as free and expansive in the Yokoya manner, and of the colouring the published sources write 「色絵の技法も堅実であり、同工の技術の高さを如実に物語っている」 (the *iroe* technique is also steady, and it shows plainly the high level of this maker's skill).
Konju (昆寿) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsushige (光重) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Miyake Hidemasa (三宅英政) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Soju (宗壽) — Mainline. Yokoya Soju was a metalworker of the Yokoya school active in the mid-Edo period, born in Keian 4 (1651) and dying in Kyoho 19 (1734) at the age of eighty-four. He has long been discussed as a disciple connected with both the first-generation Yokoya Soyo and Yokoya Somin; in recent scholarship, he is understood as a disciple of the first-generation Soyo. Soju's career thus places him at the formative heart of the Yokoya lineage, working in the decades surrounding the Genroku era when the school's aesthetic conventions were being defined and transmitted to successive generations.
Soju's designated works are unified by a mastery of *takabori* on *shakudo* *nanako-ji* grounds — the technically demanding combination of high-relief carving over finely stippled alloy surfaces that became the signature medium of the Yokoya house. His compositions take natural subjects, particularly bamboo, as their governing motif, rendered in luxuriant growth across complete, unified sets of fittings (*issaku kanagu*). The NBTHK examiners observe that although *shakudo* creates a jet-black world, his bamboo appears to sway in a cool breeze, so that one almost seems to hear its distinctive refreshing sound — an overflowing display of Soju's aesthetic sensibility[[c:1]]. Inlay techniques employing various types of *irogane*, gold, and silver lend a taut unity to the overall atmosphere, bringing each piece together in a dignified and well-ordered manner.
Soju's importance lies in his capacity to produce rigorously unified *daisho koshirae* — matched long-and-short sword mountings — of the formal *kamishimo-zashi* type, in which every component sustains a single coherent theme across the entire suite. The hereditary *daisho* mounting of the Uesugi family, lords of Yonezawa Domain, is attributed to his hand and exemplifies this integrative vision. The examiners note that *daisho koshirae* preserved with such strict, properly matched uniformity have gradually become scarce, making surviving examples precious. Soju's body of work thus constitutes a distinguished contribution to the Yokoya tradition, embodying the school's commitment to refined sculptural metalwork executed with full artistic commitment[[c:2]] in an integrated, unified whole.
Terukiyo (英精) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshinori (寿矩) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshitsugu (良次) — Mainline · 1670. Takahashi Yoshitsugu (高橋良次, read Ryōji in some translations of the published sources) was born in Tenpō 13 (1842) into the family of the Edo metalworker Tōunsai[[c:1]]. He first learned metal carving from his father and from Shibahara Toshiyoshi, and then became a pupil of Tōryūsai Kiyotoshi, the Bakumatsu master of the Tanaka line. The published sources call him one of the skilled hands among Kiyotoshi's pupils[[c:2]], and they name Okada Sekiga as his own pupil. He died young, in Meiji 6 (1873), at the age of thirty-two.
He is known in the designated record through four complete mountings, each fitted with a unified set of his metalwork (*issaku kanagu*). On a late-Edo uchigatana koshirae every fitting, from the fuchi-kashira, long kojiri, koiguchi and kurikata to the menuki and the tsuba, is of solid gold (*kin-muku*), worked in nanako with gold, silver and shakudō applied devices, flat inlay, *kebori* and *katakiribori*. On a *tsukubei* mounting of the kind fashionable at the end of the Edo period, his solid-gold fittings are carved in *takabori* with chrysanthemum sprays, while the tsuba is by Matsuzaki Naritoshi and the lacquer by Rikuyūsai.
His subjects are auspicious and literati themes carried through a whole mounting. On the uchigatana koshirae, scattered fans carry the hermit-poet Lin Hejing, a tortoise, young pine, adonis, orchid, peony, plum, bamboo and chrysanthemum. With the black lacquer scabbard they make up the Three Friends of Winter, the Four Friends and the Four Gentlemen. The published sources write that there the splendour of gold and the elegance of the design are fused to fine effect[[c:3]]. The tsukubei mounting is likewise designed as the Four Gentlemen, and they call it a particularly accomplished example, thoroughly in the Edo taste[[c:4]].
A daishō koshirae shows a quieter register. Its scabbards are of ironwood (*tettōgi*), the long sword mounted with a tsuba and the short sword as an aikuchi, and his fittings carry a single theme of autumn grasses throughout. The daitō fuchi-kashira are polished solid gold in high relief, the tsuba is polished shakudō with flat gold and silver inlay, and the shōtō fittings are silver with gold and shakudō colour. The published sources call it a refined daishō in which the autumn-grass fittings stand out vividly against the subdued ironwood[[c:5]].
His last recorded work is an aikuchi tantō koshirae inscribed on the koiguchi with a winter day of the year Kōgo (1870). All of its fittings are solid gold carved with chrysanthemum blossoms, the kozuka and wari-kōgai in sukidashi high relief and the menuki split-signed 良 and 次. The published sources call it a powerful work by an artist who died at thirty-two[[c:6]].
All four of his designated works are in the Juyo tier, three of them late-Edo mountings and one of the early Meiji years. His short working life makes his output small, and a complete mounting by him in solid gold is a rare thing for a collector of Bakumatsu metalwork to encounter.
Hideyuki (秀随) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masamori (政守) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masayoshi (政義) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naotoki (直時) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Teruhiko (英彦) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Terumasa (英昌) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Terutoki (英辰) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Tomoyoshi (友喜) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshimitsu (寿光) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yukinobu (行信) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akichika (明親) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akishige (明重) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Eiko (英光) — Mainline · Edo late. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Horie Okiyoshi (堀江興吉) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Ishiguro Masahiro (石黒政広) — Mainline · 1800-1868. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kazutomo (一知) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kiyoshige (清重) — Mainline. Kiyoshige was the adopted son of Tanaka Seijū, founder of the Tōryūsai lineage, and succeeded as the second generation of that name. His common name (*tsūshō*) was Minomatsu. While still young he was elevated to the Buddhist honorary rank of *Hōkyō*, and he was permitted the art name Seiu. Active during the late Edo period, Kiyoshige occupied a central position within the Tōryūsai school, working alongside Itō Katsumi — himself a gifted disciple of Seijū — with whom he executed collaborative pieces of the highest order. Together they represent the mature flowering of the Tōryūsai tradition as it had been transmitted from its founder.
Kiyoshige's technical vocabulary was rooted in the school's signature command of *takabori* with polychrome *iroe*, yet he distinguished himself through an exceptional capacity for volumetric modeling. His *yōbori* carving, approaching fully sculptural *marubori*, displays what the NBTHK characterizes as outstanding "placement of flesh" (*nikuoki*) — a superior sense of mass and bodily modeling — while the chisel work is effective into every corner[[c:2]]. In his tsuba, straightforward, forthright *takabori* and the skillful use of various colored metals create strongly contrasted, animated pictorial fields[[c:3]], with spacious compositions making effective use of open ground and finely sprinkled *nanako*. In composition, carving, and coloring alike, the workmanship is careful and precise throughout[[c:4]].
The NBTHK judges Kiyoshige's finest works as attaining a level comparable even to that of his master. His solid-gold menuki of Shō-Kannon Bosatsu, carved with such pronounced volume that the figure appears almost as *marubori*[[c:1]], is singled out as a piece of exceptionally elevated character — the finest among his surviving oeuvre. His collaborative tsuba with Itō Katsumi constitutes valuable material for the study of the Tōryūsai school, clearly demonstrating the firmly grounded, advanced technique of both makers. Given that extant works by Kiyoshige are few, each designated example carries particular weight as testimony to the technical and artistic achievements of the Tōryūsai line.
Koreyoshi (是美) — Mainline. Ishiguro Koreyoshi was the son of Masayoshi, whom the NBTHK 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 same 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 NBTHK'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 *takabori* with *iroe* on *shakudo* *nanako-ji* 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 *suaka*, deployed with what the examiners recognize as "an outstanding sense of color." His *menuki* display rounded sculptural carving (*yobori*) on gold grounds, while his *kozuka* and *kogai* feature the characteristic *kin'ura* (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 NBTHK 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 tsuba 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[[c:1]], 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.
Masaaki (政明) — Mainline. Ishiguro Masaaki was a pupil of the first Ishiguro Masatsune, the founder of the Ishiguro school. He lived at Matsushita-chō in Kanda, Edo, and took the gō Mokuensai (木鳶斎). The published sources record that he was born in Bunka 10 (1813) and was active into the Kaei and Meiji years; because he would have entered the school in Masatsune's last years, they conjecture that his practical teacher was the second Masatsune or Masayoshi. Within the school he is the gifted hand they set beside his fellow pupil Masayoshi, "a master spoken of as one of the twin pillars"[[c:1]].
The Ishiguro manner, the sources write, gives direct expression to the taste of its age, a rich and pictorial world of birds and flowers worked in high relief and colour inlay. Masaaki follows it closely. He inherited the technique of the first Masatsune faithfully, and his drawing, "thoroughly from life"[[c:2]], is called striking. His usual plate is *shakudō* with *nanako-ji*, at times *oborogin* with *ishime-ji*, carved in *takabori* and set with *suemon* and colour inlay in gold, silver, *shakudō*, *shibuichi* and *hiirodō*. The chisel work is minute and the sense of colour outstanding, and on the tsuba the open space is left wide, a composition the sources trace to Masatsune, so that a clear and lucid air fills the field.
The subject he made his own is the pheasant and the golden pheasant. The house worked birds and flowers above all, and of Masaaki the sources write that "among his works on the pheasant and golden pheasant in particular, masterpieces are many"[[c:3]]. The pheasant appears on nine of the eighteen pieces in his designated record, the golden pheasant on nearly as many. He often sets out a parent-and-chick group, cock and hen with their chicks, in a drawing-from-life manner, upright and high in tone; on the tsuba the pheasant is paired with bamboo. On one *shakudō* tsuba the cock fills the face in vivid colour and the hen and chick sit in wide space on the reverse; the sources note that several tsuba of this composition exist and that this one is the finest for its state of preservation. A *daishō* pair on *oborogin ishime-ji* sets parent pheasants among bamboo with gold, *oborogin*, *shakudō* and *hiirodō* inlay, and a three-piece set of the same subject is called a masterpiece of the smith and his school.
Around that subject run the other birds of the house. Pairs of peacocks among a hundred flowers appear on two sets, worked so densely that the sources call such crowding unusual in his work; where an ordinary craftsman would overdo it and fall into vulgarity, Masaaki keeps it refined and beautiful, without a trace of coarseness. A plum and bush warbler *mitokoromono* is carved from life in *takabori* and colour on *shakudō*, and a hawk chasing sparrows on a *kozuka* and *menuki* pair is praised for movement, the sources calling it a fine work in which the merits of the Ishiguro school are refined. The hawk is the subject they also name for Masatsune and Masayoshi; the pheasant pair is what sets Masaaki apart within the house.
The sources are not uncritical. On a plum-and-hawk set they find the *menuki* weaker than the *kozuka* and *kōgai*, "cramped, and whatever the technique, lacking force"[[c:4]]. Elsewhere the judgment is consistent: careful *takabori*, varied colour and a high polish of each technique. What marks his hand among his fellow pupils is a more splendid use of colour inlay, set within the bird-and-flower realism that the house made its own.
Masaaki's record stands on eighteen Jūyō designations, tsuba, *daishō* tsuba pairs, *mitokoromono*, two-piece sets and full sets of fittings, from the twenty-second session to the sixty-seventh. No provenance or institutional holder is recorded for them, and none stands above the Jūyō rank. His work is therefore met in private collections, and a signed pheasant tsuba or set in good preservation is the piece that represents him best. Such work appears only from time to time, and a collector of Edo bird-and-flower fittings looks for it with patience.
Masachika (政近) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masaharu (政春) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masatsune (政常) — Mainline · 1829-1868. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsutoki (満辰) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsutsune (光常) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mōri Mitsunori (毛利光則) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naoharu (直春) — Mainline. Yanagawa Naoharu was the biological son of Naoyuki and the lineal grandson of the family founder, Naomasa, who had studied under Yokoya Somin and established the Yanagawa house as an independent line within the Yokoya school. Naoharu's father died suddenly soon after his birth, and he therefore trained under the patronage and guidance of Naomitsu, who served as both guardian and fourth-generation head. When Naomitsu retired during the Kansei era (1789--1801), Naoharu succeeded to the headship as the third-generation master of the Yanagawa house. He went on to foster such artists as his own son Naotsura, Kono Haruaki, and Suzuki Haruchika, thereby invigorating the world of metal carving in Edo and enhancing the renown of the Yanagawa name.
Naoharu's manner of work excelled particularly in *takabori* and *iroe* executed on *nanako-ji* grounds of *shakudo* or *oborogin*, inheriting the Yokoya-school hallmark of combining *shakudo nanako-ji* with high relief and polychrome inlay[[c:1]]. His carving is characterized by ample, rich modeling (*niku-dori*) rendered with a lofty sense of dignity; the NBTHK observes that his workmanship approaches that of Somin himself. While the Yanagawa atelier's hallmark subjects -- lions (*shishi*), horses, and tigers -- are well known, one of Naoharu's special points of interest is that, unlike most works of the Yanagawa main line, he also carved figural scenes with wit and elegance. His minute execution in miniature forms such as *menuki* is described as astonishing, uniting meticulous detail with refinement rather than sacrificing dignity to technique.
The NBTHK regards Naoharu as a master craftsman comparable in skill to the founder Naomasa, and in certain appraisals as surpassing him in technical ability. Although the Yanagawa school inherited the stylistic manner of the Yokoya school, many of Naoharu's works incorporate the Yanagawa house's own fresh and independent idiom. His finest pieces are consistently appraised as works produced with particular effort and resolve -- pieces that fully demonstrate his true merit and may be called successful masterpieces. Through the strength of both his artistry and his teaching, Naoharu secured the Yanagawa house as one of the foremost lineages within the broader Yokoya tradition.
Naomitsu (直光) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naoteru (直照) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Okada Setsuga (岡田雪峨) — Mainline · 1854-1925. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Shigeyoshi (茂義) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Soyo (宗与) — Mainline · 1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Terumitsu (英満) — Mainline. Omori Terumitsu, first called Mitsuzo, was the metalwork artist who carried the Omori line of kinko, a branch of the Yokoya machibori school, through the late Edo period. Three of the four published records make him the fifth son of Teruhide, whom they call the famous master of the house. They say he took his father's common name Kisoji and inherited the headship even though there were elder sons, Hidenaga among them. Two of those records add, with a hedge, that he is thought to have succeeded as the sixth head after the death of the fifth, Hidenaga. The fourth record, the oldest of the group, gives a different father: it names him the fifth son of Eisho, the founder of the line. The published sources therefore disagree on which Omori head was his father, and the majority reading is Teruhide.
All four records open on the same judgment of his place in the house. While keeping to the carving method of his forebears, they write, he accepted the changes of his time, devised refinements, and led the line to prosperity[[c:1]]. His materials are those of the Omori workshop: shakudo and shibuichi finished in nanako, and on one pair of guards an iron plate finished in ishime-ji. On these he works in takabori and sukidashi high relief, with applied suemon inlay and colour-metal iroe in gold, silver, shakudo and suaka.
His subjects are the repertoire of the house rather than personal inventions. The Omori lion comes first. On a dai-sho pair of shakudo nanako tsuba the lion is set large across the plate, full of power, and the published sources find in its face and its heavy-boned, solid body the marks of the Omori lion. On both guards the omote shows the lion running and the ura shows it seated, so that each pair of faces sets movement against stillness. A mitokoromono of the minogame carries the breaking waves the line is known for. The NBTHK writes that the waves on the kozuka and kogai are carved at ease and with great freedom, as though the sound of the surf could be heard, and that the high-relief inlay and the minogame menuki are full of life, with a taut, dignified vigour in their many expressions.
The question of his signature is particular to him. His pupil Mitsutatsu sometimes carved works that went out under the master's name, and the published sources read a Terumitsu mei in part by the form of its kao. On the minogame set the kao shows the work to be Terumitsu's own, and the record calls it one of his masterpieces. A shibuichi nanako tsuba of the treasure ship with the Seven Gods of Fortune, a crane and tortoise amid waves on its reverse, reads the other way. It is signed Terumitsu, yet the NBTHK judges it a proxy work by Mitsutatsu: the characters for Omori Mitsu match Mitsutatsu's own signature, and the kao is shaped to suggest the character tatsu. The record still places it level with the master's own hand, workmanship in no way inferior to Terumitsu's, and calls it a masterpiece bearing the master's mei.
The latest of the four records adds a documentary link to the painters of his day. A dai-sho pair of white herons on iron in ishime-ji, worked in sukidashi high relief with gold inlay and silver suemon, is signed with the painter's credit Kano Tohaku Yoshinobu ga before the Terumitsu mei, for the design follows an under-drawing by that Kano painter. The NBTHK values the pair as evidence of his contact with the painters of the time. It notes the bold placing of the herons on the fine, moist iron, the varied carving that gives a rich range of expression, and calls the pair outstanding among his works.
Terumitsu's designated record is four works, all at the Juyo Tosogu rank: two dai-sho pairs of tsuba, a single tsuba and a mitokoromono. All are signed, though one of the four is the tsuba the NBTHK gives to Mitsutatsu's hand. There are no Tokubetsu Juyo pieces, and no current holder or old provenance is recorded against them. With so small a designated record, his work reaches a collector only rarely, and the published sources show that a Terumitsu signature is weighed together with its kao: a lion, wave or figure subject in the house manner whose kao marks his own hand is the form in which his art is most securely known.
Toshiyoshi (寿良) — Mainline. A wakizashi koshirae fitted entirely with his work takes its subjects from the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars of China, and its iron tsuba is dated in the cyclical year 戊辰, which the published sources identify as Meiji 1 (1868). Its maker, Shibahara (Fujiwara) Toshiyoshi, was born in Bunsei 12 (1829) and went by the common name Kyutaro. The NBTHK's commentary calls him an outstanding talent among the pupils of Toryusai Kiyotoshi[[c:1]], an artist who carried on the stylish, true Edo technique of the Toryusai school and who is praised as a master second only to his teacher[[c:2]]. He used the art names Seijo, Koso (孔叟), Koso (耕叟) and Ryugansai, and his work runs from the closing years of the Edo period into the early Meiji era.
The piece the published sources single out as his strongest is a kozuka of a tiger in the rain. They note that the tiger was a subject favoured by Tsuchiya Yasuchika of the Nara school, and later attempted by Iwamoto Konkan, Taizan Motoyoshi and Murakami Jochiku. Toshiyoshi carved his tiger in shibuichi in high relief, coloured it and set it as an applied inlay on a polished iron plate. The commentary finds it extremely rich in volume, the eyes keen, the fierce animal carried by its thick, heavy forelegs. It calls the kozuka 「寿良の技量がいかんなく示された屈指の作」, a leading work in which his skill is shown to the full, charged with force, with the rain also well rendered.
His preferred plate is polished shibuichi, which the commentary calls his specialty[[c:3]], and he worked shakudo, iron, oborogin, solid gold and solid silver beside it. On a kozuka of Saigyo standing alone beneath a willow by a quiet river, the published sources praise the modest but assured chisel and 「柔軟性に富む円やかな彫り口」, the supple, rounded carving that is his own quality. They add that the cat-scratch file marks on the reverse are often seen in this school. On a three-piece set of the poets Yamabe no Akahito and Saigyo, the empty shibuichi field is given light and shade 「特殊な技法で濃淡をつける」, by a special technique, so that the kozuka carries the loneliness of an autumn evening and the kogai the breadth of Suruga Bay beneath Fuji. On a tsuba of the Setsubun demon-expelling rite he hammered oborogin into a tsuchime texture, and the commentary finds the essence of the piece in the oni's sharp yet somehow bewildered expression.
His subjects are figural above all, and Chinese sages and immortals are handled with a gentle air. A tsuba of three immortals shows Gama and Tekkai on the front and Choka-ro on the back, and in the sukidashi carving of its pine and bamboo the commentary sees the manner of Kiyotoshi[[c:4]]. A kozuka and fuchi-kashira set pairs Rin Wasei with crane and plum against the giant Kyoreijin with his tiger, worked on shakudo with a roughened texture, fine high relief, varied colour inlay, flat inlay and keshi gilding. A tsuba of Okuninushi, shown in the guise of Daikokuten with his mallet and great sack, carries the maxim 「徳者本也 財者末也」, virtue as the root and wealth as the branch, and the commentary reads the whole as 「沈着とした雰囲気に満ちている」, filled with a composed, settled atmosphere. A Jurojin tsuba sets the god beneath a great pine trunk on the front and a deer in open space on the back, and a pair of menuki renders the guardian Kongo Misshaku, the vajra-bearer who drives off the enemies of the Buddha, in hiirodo copper with shakudo and gold.
Within the Toryusai school the published sources treat him as the closest continuator of his teacher. They call him the most capable hand among Kiyotoshi's pupils[[c:5]], and of a pair of menuki of a fisherman and an Ohara woman at rest they write that the work convinces one that he was 「清寿門下随一の金工」, the foremost metalworker among Kiyotoshi's pupils. His fittings also appear on complete koshirae, among them an aikuchi mounting fitted throughout in solid gold with landscape fittings, and another in solid silver whose fittings follow the four seasons. On one wakizashi mounting the fuchi-kashira and tsuba are his, while the kozuka is by Koryusai Fukawa Kazunori, a separate artist trained under Higashi Masutsune, and that piece is not his hand.
His designated record is fourteen works, all at the Juyo rank for sword fittings and mountings, among them tsuba, kozuka, menuki, a three-piece set and complete koshirae. There are no Tokubetsu Juyo pieces, and no current holder or daimyo provenance is recorded against them. One tsuba is kept in a box of the Ryushido inscribed by Ito Katsumi in remembrance of him, and a pair of menuki comes with its original box. His work appears on the market from time to time rather than often, and a signed piece on polished shibuichi, carved with the supple, rounded relief the published sources name as his own, shows the side of his art they praise most.
Akihiro (明広) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akinori/Meijo (明乗) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akio (明雄) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akisada (明貞) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akitatsu/Meiryu (明竜) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Akitomo (明伴) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Haruhide (春英) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Harusada (春貞) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Hattori Mitsunao (服部光直) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Hidenaga (秀永) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Hiroaki (広明) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kazutoshi/Ichiju (一寿) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kazuyoshi (一美) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Kiyotsugu (清次) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Konkansai (昆寛斎) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masa (雅) — Mainline · 1480-1670. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masaharu (政春) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masakage (政景) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masakatsu (政克 (Masamoto) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masakatsu (政勝) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Masatsune (政恒) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsutomo (光朝) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Mitsuyasu (光保) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Nagayoshi (永美) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naotoshi (直俊) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naotsugu (直次) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naotsura (直連) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Naozumi (直純) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Oguma Tsunetoshi (小熊常寿) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Okichika (興慎) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Okihisa (興久) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Onuki Masaharu (小貫政春) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Ryokan (良寛) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Sadayoshi (貞美) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Sochi (宗知) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Soei (宗永) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Soei (宗栄) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Tatsunari (辰成) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Tatsunobu (辰宣) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Terukazu (英一) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Terutomo (英知) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Tomomasa (伴正) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshiaki (寿明) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshiharu (寿春) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshikatsu (寿勝) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshimasa (寿政) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshinobu (寿延) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Toshitaka (寿高) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Tsunenobu (常信) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yanagawa Naoshige (柳川直茂) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yasukiyo (安精) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yokoya Eisei III (横谷英精) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshiaki (吉明) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshiaki (美明) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshikage (義景) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshinobu (良延) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshisada (宜貞) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshitaka (美孝) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yoshitsugu (美次) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.
Yukiyoshi (行善) — Mainline. Smith of the Edo Yokoya School.