NihontoWatchNihontoWatchYokoya Somin was born in Edo in the third year of Kanbun (1670), and was the third head of the Yokoya family. He also had the name Tomotsune. Somin’s grandfather, the first generation Soyo, studied in the Goto School and worked for the shogunate. Somin also initially worked for the shogunate, but later left his position to freely develop his technique, and would eventually found the machibori movement. Somin’s style can generally be classified in two categories – high relief use of colored metals, and katakiribori. He maintained a close relationship with Hanabusa Icho of the Kano school of painting, drawing on inspiration. This piece masterfully displays Somin’s hallmark katakiribori technique, with bold yet detailed carvings of varying depths depicting even the smallest hair, testament to his remarkable skill.
NihontoWatchOffered by Ginza Seikodo
109 on the market
Yokoya Somin I
Edo
Signed
Tokuho (NBTHK)
Machibori · Edo
1 piece on the market now
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.
Where Somin 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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¥1,500,000