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Inagawa Yoshitoshi and Yoshimitsu tsuba


JohnTo

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I have examples of tsuba from the Inagawa School in Edo which I hope will be of interest to MNB readers.  The first is signed Yoshitoshi and the second, a daisho pair, are signed Yoshimitsu.  The tsuba were purchased in two separate lots, a year apart, from the same auction house and the boxes contained similar descriptions in Japanese, so I assume that they were being sold by the same Japanese dealer/collector.  Having no previous knowledge of the artists or the school, I make no claims as to the authenticity of the signatures (appraisals welcome), but as neither was a master of the Inagawa school I guess they are more likely to be genuine.

The first tsuba I’m posting from the Inagawa School in Edo is signed Yoshitoshi (良寿, though Bonhams read this as the alternative Nagatoshi, which sent me on a long fruitless search for the artist).  It is a marugata (7.2 cm x 6.8 cm, thickness [rim]:  0.4 cm.  Weight: 142g) shakudo nanako tsuba with a copper/silver rope fukurin.

The front of the tsuba depicts a Chinese sage beneath a thatched roof trying to read by moonlight and the back shows a few plants, rocks and five geese.  The design is a mixture of carving and iroe takazogan.  The only criticism I have of the workmanship is that the leaves of the bamboo just seem to be scattered around the stems rather than growing from them.

The tsuba came in a kiri box with a Japanese inscription on a strip of paper, as follows;

良寿.   木村氏. 木邑とも銘を切る.  稲川良克の門人で, のちに寿良に学ぶ. 木邑良寿(花押),江城東紅菓川辺木村良寿年十五歳而作之と銘する.

獅子や人物図の高彫と片切彫の作がある. 江戸住. 江戸時代後期

My poor Japanese and Google translates this as: ‘Yoshitoshi.   Kimura family (This misled me for months as I thought it read Mr Kimura, and was the addressee of the note!).  Also signed Kimura with the kanji (木邑).  A student of Inagawa Yoshikatsu, who later learnt from Toshiyoshi (can also be read as Juryo or Toshinaga).  The Kimura Yoshitoshi (signature) was used for 15 years to mark his stay in Edo Higashi Kanagawa Ichigi village (?).  There are works in high relief (katabori) and also those cut out in the round (katakiribori) such as lions.  He was an Edo resident.  He lived in the late Edo period.’  Corrections to my translation welcome.

According to Markus Sesko (Genealogy Charts p 45) Yoshitoshi, a member of the Kimura family, worked in the Inagawa School in Edo and studied under Yoshikatsu, the third generation master and first member of the Kimura family to join the School.  Yoshikatsu (1725-1779) was adopted by the second generation master, Naokatsu (1720-1763, who appears to have been only 5 years older than Yoshikatsu!).  Seven other students of Yoshikatsu are listed, including the possible maker of my other Inagawa School tsuba: Yoshimitsu, posted separately below.  No dates are given for any of the students but I deduce that they must have lived approximately 1750-1825.

 

I have two possible candidates for the identity of the Chinese philosopher depicted on this tsuba, namely Che Yin (Sha’in) or Sun Kung, both from the Jin dynasty (265-420 CE).  Che Yin used a bag of fireflies to provide light to study by, but as no fireflies are shown in this tsuba it’s probably not him.  Sun Kung studied using moonlight reflected in the snow to provide light to read by.  This tsuba shows only a thin new moon and no snow.  Perhaps this is why the sage is looking despondent and is looking forward to the full moon in about 10 days’ time and perhaps some snow as well.  I usually get the attributions to the mythology wrong, so I appreciate corrections from NMB scholars.

Best regards

(Just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Yoshitoshi a.JPG

Yoshitoshi b.JPG

Yoshitoshi Gen..jpg

Yoshitoshi.JPG

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The second lot of Inagawa School shakudo tsuba are a daisho pair in maru gata form and each is engraved (kebori and katakiribori) with a ho-o bird (a mythical Japanese/Chinese phoenix) in a paulownia tree with clouds in the background.  The ho-o and the paulownia leaves are finely engraved (kebori), but the clouds and branches are cut with a wide chisel (katakiribori).  The engraving is without embellishment; except for a tiny (sub mm) spot of gold to pick out the eye of the ho-o.  It appears that the bird depicted on the dai is a cock and the one the sho is a hen.  The shakudo plate of the tsuba is flat, migaki-gi (polished) and both have a kogai hitsu ana that have been filled with a gold covered plug decorated with fine vertical file marks.  The sho also has a kodzuka hitsu.

Dai: Height: 7.6 cm, Width: 7.3 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.4 cm, Weight: 200 g

Sho: Height: 7.3 cm, Width: 7.0 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.4 cm, Weight: 171 g

Like my other Inagawa tsuba (Yoshitoshi, above) these tsuba came in a kiri box together with a slip of paper in Japanese providing information about the artist which read:

良光   青柳氏.  栄五郎と. 良英兄弟.  はじめ掘江興成に学び, 光成と名乗る.

のちに良克の門人となる. 青柳良光(花押)と銘して.

獅子,竹菊,図の縁頭ゃ小 柄がぁる  (Don’t think this is the right kanji)

江戸神田,数寄屋河岸住. ()一楊堂 

 

Once again, using my poor Japanese and Google, I translated this as (corrections welcome):

Yoshimitsu.  Family name: Aoyanagi.  Called Eigoro.  His brother was Yoshihide.

First studied under Horie Okinari, called Mitsunari.  (Note from Markus Sesko: who in turn was a student of Omori Teruhide, 1730-1798)

Later, became a student of Yoshikatsu. Signed Aoya(na)gi Yoshimitsu (kao)

Lions (shishi), bamboo and chrysanthemum, designs of fuchi-kashira are small ?

He lived in Edo, Kanda district, by the river.  His Go (art name) was Ichiyodo. (note: Markus Sesko says Ichimudo)

According to Markus Sesko (The Japanese toso-kinko Schools) Yoshimitsu was a member of the Inagawa School in the Kanda district of Edo, founded by Naoshige (died 1739).  He first studied under Horie Okinari, 1st generation master of the Horie School in Edo, born 1749.  Yoshimitsu studied under the third generation master, Yoshikatsu (1725-1779) and was a member of the Aoyanagi family (Note: The samurai manor house of the Aoyagi/Aoyanagi family in Kakunodate, Akita is now a museum).  It may be that Yoshimitsu was permitted to sign his work as he was a member of an important samurai family and so added his family name to the signature.  The dates of Yoshimitsu or his contemporaries is not given in Sesko’s genealogy charts, but he was probably active around 1760-1820.

Both tsuba are signed Aoyagi Yoshimitsu with a kao (Markus Sesko reads the signature as Aoyanagi Yoshimitsu).

According to Japanese mythology the ho-o is a symbol of good luck and resides in paulownia trees.  However, it said to only appear in times of peace, prosperity and, as it was a symbol of the Imperial house, some believed that it only appeared at the start of a new era.  The leaves of the paulownia form the basis of the paulownia kamon (family crest) used by the Toyotomi clan and later by the Japanese Imperial family.  I think that it is therefore possible that this daisho pair of tsuba was commissioned to coincide with the inauguration of a new Emperor and start of a new era.  1772 saw the start of the An’ei era (Emperor Hidehito), 1781 the start of the Tenmei era (Morohito) and 1818 the start of the the Bunsei era (Ayahito).  There were also changes of the era in 1789 (Kansei), 1801 (Kyowa) and 1804 (Bunka) without a change in Emperor.  Although there is no corroborative evidence, it seems probable that these tsuba were made to celebrate the assent of Emperor Morohito and the start of the Tenmei era in 1781, this being the date most likely to coincide with Yoshimitsu’s career.

Best regards John

(Just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Yoshimitsu Dai 1.JPG

Yoshimitsu Dai 2.JPG

Yoshimitsu Sho 1.JPG

Yoshimitsu Sho 2.JPG

Yoshimitsu Gen.jpg

Yoshimitsu.JPG

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Some interesting research - thanks for sharing - my Japanese is rubbish as it took me ages to translate for Yoshinobu but once found you see it is so obvious

I'm using Grey's flash cards a lot more recently them onto the 'big' books if required

In my opinion You need either books by Sesko and the Kinko meikan to authentic a mei

Happy hunting

My first trip out was yesterday to meet up with a dealer and bought 4 tsuba one being a very nice tanto Nara tsuba

 

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Hi Grev,

I find this following link useful; https://kanji.sljfaq.org/.  It allows you to draw in kanji freehand then gives you the 20 best estimates.  You can then copy these into Word, make up your sentence, the pop it into Google Translate for a rough translation.  Quite useful for signatures.

I don't bother trying to authenticate mei.  my knowledge is not that good, fakers have better references than me to genuine mei.  At the end of the day if you consider the object to be a good well crafted piece does it matter if it was made by the master, a student, or a talented faker?  I guess it does if you are paying a high price for a work by the master but find out its only by a student.

 

Best regards, John 

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On 3/25/2021 at 4:52 AM, JohnTo said:

良寿.   木村氏. 木邑とも銘を切る.  稲川良克の門人で, のちに寿良に学ぶ. 木邑良寿(花押),江城東紅菓川辺木村良寿年十五歳而作之と銘する.

獅子や人物図の高彫と片切彫の作がある. 江戸住. 江戸時代後期

My poor Japanese and Google translates this as: ‘Yoshitoshi.   Kimura family (This misled me for months as I thought it read Mr Kimura, and was the addressee of the note!).  Also signed Kimura with the kanji (木邑).  A student of Inagawa Yoshikatsu, who later learnt from Toshiyoshi (can also be read as Juryo or Toshinaga).  The Kimura Yoshitoshi (signature) was used for 15 years to mark his stay in Edo Higashi Kanagawa Ichigi village (?).  There are works in high relief (katabori) and also those cut out in the round (katakiribori) such as lions.  He was an Edo resident.  He lived in the late Edo period.’  Corrections to my translation welcome.

 

My attempt:

 

Yoshitoshi. Last name of Kimura 木村 (also spelled as 木邑). Apprentice of Inagawa Yoshikatsu, and later learned from Toshiyoshi. Signed with "Kimura Yoshitoshi (kaō)", as well as "Ejō Higashi Momijikawa-hotori Kimura Yoshitoshi seinen jūgo-sai shikōshite kore wo tsukuru" (Kimura Yoshitoshi of East Edo near Momijikawa made this at the age of 15). 

 

Extant works of shishi and people both in high relief (takabori) and half-cut carving (katakiri-bori). Resident of Edo. Latter part of Edo Period.

 

江城東紅葉川辺良寿

 

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My attempt at the next one.

 

Yoshimitsu
Last name of Aoyanagi. Called Eigoro. Brother of Yoshihide/Yoshiteru. First studied under Horie Okinari, and took the name Mitsunari. Later apprenticed to Yoshikatsu. Signed with "Aoyanagi Yoshimitsu kaō", using designs of shishi, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and rabbits on fuchi/kashira and kozuka. Lived in Edo, Kanda, near Sukiya riverbank. Art-name of Ichiyōsai

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