Page 135 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

65
6 4
Katana-type sword blade Pair of sword mountings
Dated August 1677 Wood, lacquer with makie, ray skin,
Steel and silk
3
7
Length 69.7 (27 /s) Length of short scabbard 76 (29 /s);
Tokyo National Museum length of long scabbard 99.5 (39 Vs)
Important Art Object Hikone Castle Museum, Shiga
Illustrated page 118
• The katana-type sword blade is for
the longer of the two swords that the
•
During the Edo period only the
samurai carried. This example has the samurai were permitted to carry the
^^9 shallow curve and the length seen in long sword in addition to the shorter
work of the last quarter of the seven-
teenth century, when the style of companion sword. For formal use pair
on duty in Edo, a matching
when
swords followed the dictates of formal with black scabbards was mandatory,
exercises requiring large straightfor-
ward cuts. The fine forging grain and but on other occasions more luxury
could be enjoyed. This pair of sword
the bright crystalline structure of the mountings is ornamented with wal-
hardened edge in the pattern of bil- nut shells set into the black lacquer of
lowing waves (hamon) are character- the magnolia scabbards and polished
istic of the work of Sukehiro (b. 1637) flat. The collar and pommel of the hilt
of Osaka. Exuberant hamon patterns are lacquered black and decorated
were produced by a number of smiths with bird and flower designs in gold
in Osaka at the time, whereas the work makie lacquer. Both swords were
of the smiths in Edo was more subdued. equipped with pockets in the scabbards
This contrast is thought to reflect the to hold a kozuka hilt for a utility knife
fact that Edo was largely populated
by the warrior class, whereas Osaka and a kôgai, or bodkin.
had a sizable merchant population The kozuka and kôgai of this long
with a taste for luxury and the exotic. sword have motifs of a dragon among
waves and of sheep, sculpted in high
Because only the samurai were per-
mitted to carry a long sword, sword relief on a gold ground. They are
by Omori Teruhide
(d. 1798).
signed
making declined more rapidly in The kozuka and kogai of the short
Osaka toward the end of the seven- sword have horses and dogs and are
teenth century. The billowing-waves signed by Kikuoka Mitsuyuki (1750-
hamon was produced by other Osaka 1800). Teruhide was the son of Ômori
smiths, including Sukehiro's pupil Terumasa (d. 1772), who had been
Sukenao, whose work can be easily taught by Yokoya Sômin (1670-1733),
mistaken for that of his teacher. VH
the foremost of the first independent
town carvers in the late seventeenth
century. Mitsuyuki, the first of several
generations of the Kikuoka school,
studied under one of Somin's pupils,
Q Yanagawa Naomitsu. VH