Description

TANAKA YOSHINAGA Impressively large & elegant pair of menuki signed Tanaka Yoshinaga. The pair represent graceful cuttings of fresh cut orchids executed in warm grey-brown shibuichi with pale gold blossoms. The contrast between the gold and shibuichi is pleasantly understated. The mei is beautifully cut and positioned along the underside of the leaves at the base of the menuki. Yoshinaga Tanaka, was a metalworker who worked in the middle of the Edo period. Tanaka / Sonobe school (田中・薗部) The founder of this Tanaka school was Tanaka Masayoshi (田中政芳) who first name was “Bun´emon” (文右衛門). He was born in Kyōto and studied first under Naemura Shichirō´emon (苗村 七郎右衛門), before he went to Edo to refine his craft under the guidance of Gotō Etsujō (後藤悦乗), the 3rd gen. of the Ribei line. At that time, he changed his first name to “Gozaemon” (五左衛門). Masayoshi´s successor and 2nd gen. of the Tanaka school was his son Gozaemon Masafusa (政房) who also studied under Gotō Ranjō (後藤闌乗). Masafusa´s son Gonshichirō (権七郎), another Ranjō-student followed him as 3rd genenration Tanaka under the name “Nobuyoshi” (信芳). Nobuyoshi also used the gō “Sōkyo” (巣許). Nobuyoshi’s son, Yoshiaki (芳章) became the 4th gen. head of this school. According to the genealogy timeline, this Yoshinaga along with Yoshiaki and Yoshiyuki were both contemporaries and brothers, all sons of Nobuyoshi. Apparently, Yoshiaki was eldest as it was, he who became the 4th head of the school. It was the adopted son and student of Yoshiaki, Yoshitsugu who later became an independent smith and formed the Sonobe line. * Please note this Tanaka school is unrelated to the Tanaka Toryusai school.

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