NihontoWatchNihontoWatchSoyo was born in Edo in 1700 as the second son of Yokoya Soju and the younger sibling of Terukiyo. He later became the adopted son of Somin and in 1733 ascended to the head of the Yokoya School which he would continue using the artistic name Shokei. This work depicts a Shishi which was also a favored motif of his father and master Somin who defined the unique style of Yokoya Shishi. Placed in the center of the Kozuka, the work is a tribute to the remarkable skill Soyo acquired from his teacher.
NihontoWatchOffered by Ginza Seikodo
3 on the market
Yokoya Soyo II
Genroku-An'ei (1701-1779)
Signed
Tokuho (NBTHK)
Machibori · Edo
3 pieces on the market now
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.
Where Soyo 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.
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Machibori · Edo
109 pieces on the market now
The Yokoya school was the largest metalworking lineage of the Edo period, founded in the early seventeenth century when the first-generation Yokoya Soyo -- sometimes distinguished as "Sofu Soyo" or "Ko-Soyo" -- studied under Goto Injo Mitsutomi and established an independent atelier in Edo. The school's trajectory was decisively shaped by the third-generation master Somin (1670--1733), who trained in the hereditary iebori manner of the Goto house but, finding its convention-bound idiom unsatisfying, resigned his shogunal stipend and entered the sphere of independent work. There he "exercised his abilities to the fullest, achieved great success, and came to be called the founder of machibori" -- the town-carver tradition that would fundamentally reshape the world of Edo-period sword fittings. Somin cultivated a close friendship with the Kano-school-trained painter Hanabusa Iccho, from whom he received guidance regarding pictorial conceptions, and also studied with Kano Tan'yu, deepening his art through direct engagement with painters' designs. His adopted son and successor Soyo (1700--1734) faithfully continued the atelier's methods, while Soju (1651--1734), a disciple connected with both the first-generation Soyo and Somin, contributed rigorously unified daisho koshirae that exemplify the school's commitment to integrated, thematic ensembles. The Yokoya school's collective technical achievement divides broadly into two principal modes, both originated or perfected by Somin and transmitted through successive generations. The first is richly modeled takabori with polychrome metal inlay (iroe) in gold, silver, and shibuichi on shakudo nanako-ji grounds, where the carving displays an overwhelming abundance of modeled volume -- bold rises and falls in the flesh producing a forceful and crisply articulated manner that clearly reveals the school's Goto lineage and the thoroughness of its training. Soyo's works in this mode are described as possessing "both the capability and the dignity expected of Somin's successor," while Soju's takabori on shakudo nanako-ji achieves a dignified and well-ordered atmosphere across complete, unified fitting suites.
The second mode is katakiribori, a single-edge chisel technique that Somin originated, in which pronounced modulation and decisive strokes alternate depth and shallowness at will, producing modulations of speed and emphasis that recall ink painting. Soyo inherited this specialty with excellent technique, deftly alternating chisels of varying widths to combine bold katakiribori with delicate kebori linework. Among the school's most distinctive inventions are the celebrated "Yokoya lions" -- shishi rendered with such immediacy that one experiences the illusion that the lion might spring forth from the kozuka itself -- and Somin's innovative vertically oriented tatezu compositions depicting lions, tigers, horses, and other subjects from unconventional angles. The Yokoya school's enduring significance lies in its having opened a new artistic direction through freer, life-sketch-based realism that broke decisively with the formalized conventions of the Goto house while retaining that lineage's technical rigor. Somin's command of nanako-ji grounds in shakudo, polished shibuichi surfaces, and techniques such as sukidashi-bori, kebori, and yobori was comprehensive, and this breadth of technical vocabulary was transmitted intact to his successors. Soju's hereditary daisho mounting of the Uesugi family of Yonezawa Domain exemplifies the school's integrative vision -- every component sustaining a single coherent theme across the entire suite -- while Soyo's takabori works, described as "extremely rare," lend special value to surviving matched sets. Whether working in the restrained monochrome palette of polished shakudo or introducing touches of color through kinhira-zogan accents and gold iroe, the Yokoya masters consistently achieved what the NBTHK characterizes as a severity and awe-inspiring intensity that exerted a major influence on later generations of metalworkers, establishing the machibori tradition as the dominant creative current of Edo-period sword fittings. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Somin宗珉 | — | 50 |
| Soyo宗與 | — | 13 |
| Soju宗壽 | — | 3 |
| Yasukiyo安精 | — | 0 |
| Genchin元珍 | 1670 | 1 |
A Hozon-certified fitting of notably superior craftsmanship and condition, often with signature or workmanship of high reference value.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
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¥950,000