Page 138 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Sword guard with design of Pair of sword guards with design of carp
snowflake patterns
Dated 1843
Dated 1828 Shakudô, gold, and shibuichi
7
Silver and colored enamels Height 7.9; 7.4 (3 Vs; 2 /s)
3
Height 7 (2 A) Tokyo National Museum
Tokyo National Museum
Illustrated page 121
• Stylized snowflakes in cloisonné • These sword guards are embellished
enamels on a silver ground adorn this with inlaid high-relief carp of the black
sword guard. The silver provides a
alloy shakudô, which have
details
reflective surface and gives an under- of gold. The ground is of polished shi-
lying brightness to the enameling. 137
The inscribed phrase "Ôju Daiseiji ko" buichi (literally "one part in four"),
an alloy of silver that is one quarter
is translated "To the order of the Lord copper. The stream is depicted with
of Daiseiji." The word shinsei in an the katakiri bori technique, in which
inscription means "true manufacture," oblique cuts of the chisel suggest
implying that the smith had put brush painting. Katakiri bori was pop-
all his effort into making the guard.
6 9 ularized around the end of the seven-
The sword guard is signed "Hirata teenth century by the town carvers,
Shunkan." Nakamura Shunkan (active those craftsmen who were not
c. 18205-18305) was a retained metal- retained by the warrior houses and
worker of the Daiseiji Maeda clan who thus sold their works on the
in Kaga province. He worked in both open market.
Kaga and Edo, where he studied
under Hirata Shunshó (d. 1840), who The maker of these sword guards,
was retained by the eighth Tokugawa Ishiguro Masayoshi (b. 1764), was a
pupil of Ishiguro Masatsune (1760-
shogun. Shunshó gave Shunkan the 1828). Masatsune had studied under
right to the name Hirata.
Yanagawa Naomasa (1692-1757), a
Until the mid-nineteenth century pupil of the first town carver, Yokoya
there were few makers of cloisonné in Sómin. Masayoshi came to the atten-
Japan, and the technique was limited tion of the Shimazu daimyo of Sat-
to small items. It is said that the first suma and was retained by him in
generation of the Hirata family, Hirata Edo. The inscription "Juó Masayoshi,"
Dójin (1591 -1646) — who had been meaning "Old Man Masayoshi," indi-
retained by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and cates that he was in his sixtieth year,
later Tokugawa leyasu — learned the although he remained active in his
technique from Korean craftsmen. VH late eighties. A symbol of energy, the
carp was believed to swim upstream
and eventually turn into a dragon. VH

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