Kogai: Joint Work of Goto Joshin and Goto Kojo

Gotō Jōshin (乗真), the third head of the main Gotō line, was the eldest son of the second master Sōjō and the grandson of the founder Yūjō. The published sources record that he was born in Eishō 10, with the common name Jirō and the personal name Yoshihisa, later styling himself Genshirō Harumitsu. He served the Ashikaga shōguns Yoshiharu and Yoshiteru in both metalwork and financial affairs, held the house estate of three hundred chō at Sakamoto in Ōmi that had come down from Yūjō, and was later raised to the rank of Hōgen. Through a quarrel with the Azai of northern Ōmi he was attacked by Azai Ryōmasa and killed in battle in Eiroku 5 (1562), at fifty-one. The published sources join that life to his art: Jōshin was a warrior, of a most valiant temperament[[c:1]].

From that temperament they derive the trait they repeat on almost every designated piece. His work is large in scale and forceful, and it is carved to fill the whole field[[c:2]]. His plate is the house shakudō nanako, carved in takabori with gold uttori and colour, and his gold crests (kinmon) are full in volume and strong. On one composite set the published sources note that the triangular chisel marks of his crests stand out with particular clarity[[c:3]].

His modelling is described in the words of the Sōken Kishō: his chisel marks are sharp, with high mountains and deep valleys, a crisp and commanding hand[[c:4]]. The phrase returns across his record. On a pair of solid-gold lion menuki the modelling is "high mountain and low valley", and on a set of horse trappings the published sources call that relief his own unrivalled domain[[c:5]].

His subjects are first the Gotō house motifs, the kurikara dragon, paired lions and the crawling dragon, which each generation carved in its own way. The published sources compare his kurikara with the founder's: it is larger in build and charged with chisel power. Beside them stand the martial subjects of a warrior craftsman, horse trappings and a bow and arrows with ginger and ants, read as a pun on fortune in arms. A kōgai and a kozuka carry the matchlock with its powder flask, fuse and shot, a subject that entered Japan at Tanegashima in Tenmon 12 (1543) within his lifetime, carved to fill the field. There are also catfish among river weed, tigers and leopards in bamboo, waterfowl, cocks, and a six-piece set of a bridge, rocks and a waterfall.

Almost all of his work is unsigned and rests on the appraisal of later Gotō heads. Teijō, Kenjō, Renjō, Tsūjō and Mitsumori wrote origami or cut kiwame-mei such as "Mon Jōshin" on his pieces, and several sets were completed by them. On a kurikara kōgai the gold crest is his and the base plate was carved by Eijō, the sixth head. On a kurikara set Teijō carved the kozuka and menuki to match Jōshin's kōgai. The published sources add that kozuka of the upper three generations are very rare, most surviving being converted kōgai or reused crests[[c:6]]. On one kōgai, they write, the signature Gotō with a kaō is the oldest in the Gotō house and the only one of the upper three generations[[c:7]].

His designated record is five Tokubetsu Juyo and sixty-two Juyo pieces, with one Juyo Bijutsuhin and no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. The provenance the published sources give is daimyō and merchant. The six-piece Tokubetsu Juyo set descends from the Ōmaeda family of Kaga, and a cock mitokoromono from the Kōnoike, the great Ōsaka merchant house[[c:8]]. Other pieces passed through Matsudaira, Tsugaru and Maeda hands, and a Juyo Bijutsuhin mitokoromono of monkeys reaching for the moon, certified in 1949 from the collection of Hosokawa Moritatsu, is now held by the Eisei Bunko. Upper-three-generation Gotō work is rare at any level, and a Jōshin kōgai or menuki comes to market only from time to time, most often as a single piece rather than a set.