Omori Eishu (Teruhide)

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.