I thought I would start by sharing one of the kozuka from my collection. It is a Musashino-zu kozuka with NBTHK Hozon papers. The design shows the moon over autumn grasses, with shakudō nanako ground, high-relief carving, gold and silver iroe, and small silver dew drops on the grasses
What interests me most is the attribution. I recently found a very similar Musashino kozuka published in Tōken Kodōgu Gekkan. The composition and treatment of the grasses, moon, and overall arrangement seem very close to mine. However, the published example was attributed to Nomura school (野村派), while my piece has been associated with the Kyō-kinkō (京金工)
I find the published example described as den (伝) Nomura rather than simply Nomura. My understanding is that the den indicates some uncertainty in the attribution, so I do not take it as a firm identification of the school. Given how close the two pieces are, while mine was papered as Kyō-kinkō, I wonder whether this reflects a stylistic overlap between Nomura work and broader Kyō-kinkō
One thought I had about the attribution is that the Nomura school itself was closely connected to the Gotō tradition. The first generation Nomura Masatoki is traditionally said to have studied under the Gotō mainline, although the sources disagree on exactly which master, and the school was sometimes called “Awa-Gotō (阿波後藤)” because of its strong Gotō-style workmanship
Personally, I suspect the two may be closely related, possibly even by the same hand, but I would be very interested to hear how others read the attribution
