NihontoWatchNihontoWatchDo you recognize the subject of these menuki? I understand one part... a wooden frame with silk thread wound around it (itowaku) is carved on one end of each menuki. However, what on earth are the other two objects carved on each, which look like some kind of fruit? I have been pondering whatever comes to mind, but I am stumped. If you look at them upside down, they look like nothing but strawberries. Hops, the raw material for beer? They are too elongated to be grapes. After all, since the itowaku are present, it must be something related to them... if I do not detach my thoughts from the idea of plant fruits, I will likely trap myself in a dead end. It could not be helped, so I searched for the subject "Miwa" written on the certificate by looking through subject dictionaries one by one, and found a similar picture and explanation... it seems the true identity of what looked like fruit was "cedar trees." I see, so it is cedar. Just like with pine needles, I am always surprised by the uniqueness of the deformation in tosogu. The essential subject "Miwa" is a Noh play depicting a romance based on a Japanese legend (the content is long, so please look it up). It seems that if a torii, cedar, and thread are present, it is considered a "Miwa no zu" (incidentally, there is no torii in this work). However, Japanese and Chinese legends are difficult. As a shop with shallow learning, I feel jealousy toward intellectuals who can identify them just by looking at the form, and at the same time, a sense of respect wells up. As for the construction, the jigane is shakudo and quite black; there is no iroe, making them so-called mu-shakudo menuki. While the carving is simple, the kebori in key areas is precisely applied, and combined with the mountain-like eccentric shape, they possess a kofū flavor. The shape of these cedar trees that look like strawberries leaves a lovely impression as a strong impact. Considering that the pressure from the back (urayuki) is not strong and the plate is thick, perhaps the period is around mid-Edo? Since the certificate says Momoyama, I thought they might be a bit older, but the urayuki is honest. There is no constriction at the edges (susogiwa) and the rise is gentle; furthermore, judging from the small size, I suspect they were mounted as demenuki. The fact that the surface is rubbed and the traces of kebori have become thin may be an indication of that. Considering the period, the kiwame would be Kyo Kinko. If one ignores the urayuki, I think they would pass sufficiently as Ko Kinko, but... (this evaluation is strictly the view of this shop).
Offered by Asahi Token
317 on the market
Goto School
Momoyama
Unsigned
Tokuho (NBTHK)
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Iebori · Yamashiro
317 pieces on the market now
The Goto house stands as the preeminent dynasty of sword-fitting makers in the history of Japanese metalwork, an unbroken lineage of seventeen generations spanning from the founding master Yujo (1440--1512), who served Ashikaga Yoshimasa amid the refined culture of Higashiyama, through the final head Hojo (1816--1856) in the closing years of the Tokugawa shogunate. From its inception the house served successive rulers -- Ashikaga shoguns, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa -- and its productions became known as iebori, the "house carving" distinguished from machibori made for ordinary public demand. The fourth master Kojo first introduced warrior subjects and employed preparatory drawings by Kano Motonobu and Eitoku; the fifth master Tokujo struck the celebrated "Tokujo kiri" hallmark upon oban gold coinage for Hideyoshi; the third master Joshin -- "not only a metalworker but also a warrior" -- was killed in battle against the Azai clan in 1562. The seventh master Kenjo, praised since ancient times as a restorer of the house's fortunes (the finest exponents being termed Yuko-ken), traveled to Kaga and laid the foundations for the later flourishing of the Kaga-Goto tradition, while the tenth master Renjo carried the mainline from Kyoto to Edo, where it would remain through the seventeenth generation. The eleventh master Tsujo bridged the formal tradition with the expressive spirit of the Genroku era, and the thirteenth master Enjo served as an authoritative appraiser, authenticating works by earlier masters across the entire succession. The collective technical vocabulary of the Goto house is built upon shakudo nanako-ji grounds of extraordinarily minute and dense stippling, upon which motifs are rendered in takabori with kin-iroe and gin-iroe, frequently supplemented by solid gold (kinmuku) construction and kin'ura gilt backing. The sculptural manner is characterized by what the NBTHK repeatedly describes as "high mountains and deep valleys" -- a modulation of volume in which modeling rises emphatically while recesses are cut deep and clean, producing forceful and crisply articulated relief.
" Sojo inherited and tightened these forms with controlled elegance; Joshin amplified them to conspicuously larger scale with claws that are "characteristically large and long, with the tips splayed open"; Eijo brought a finer, more delicate precision to compositions of equally grand ambition; and Kenjo introduced a distinctive shosha quality -- austere and urbane -- that distinguished his work from the first six generations. The later masters sustained this discipline: Teijo's calm restraint and distinctive coloristic effects, Renjo's forty-five years of deeply worked takabori capturing instantaneous warrior movements, Tsujo's innovative left-right spreading compositions, and Hojo's reintroduction of machibori aesthetics into the official house style all demonstrate the lineage's capacity for renewal within tradition. The Goto house's enduring significance resides not merely in the technical excellence of individual masters but in the institutional continuity of a critical tradition sustained across four centuries. Works from the "upper six generations" (kami roku-dai) through Eijo established the canonical repertoire of prescribed okitemono motifs -- dragons, lions, paulownia crests, Kurikara, and auspicious figures -- while successive heads served simultaneously as makers and authenticators, issuing origami certificates and kiwame-mei inscriptions that themselves constitute important documents of connoisseurship. Valuations reaching one thousand kan and transmission through such distinguished collections as the Konoike, Shimazu, Tokugawa, and Maeda houses attest to the unrivaled esteem in which Goto metalwork has been held. Even Sokujo, whose tenure lasted barely four years before his death at thirty-two, left a small but distinguished body of work authenticated across eight subsequent generations of headmasters. From Yujo's founding vision through Hojo's final flowering -- whose technical command the NBTHK judges the finest from the twelfth master onward, betraying "not the slightest hint of the approaching conclusion" of the unbroken line -- the Goto house represents the defining standard against which all Japanese metalwork is measured, the wellspring from which the entire sokeN kinkO tradition flows. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Goto Joshin後藤乗真 | 1512-1562 | 68 |
| Goto Yujo後藤祐乗 | 1440-1512 | 41 |
| Goto Kenjo後藤顕乗 | 1586-1663 | 46 |
| Goto Sojo後藤宗乗 | 1461-1538 | 56 |
| Goto Teijo後藤程乗 | 1603-1673 | 42 |
A Hozon-certified fitting of notably superior craftsmanship and condition, often with signature or workmanship of high reference value.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteReturns are accepted within 7 days of the item's arrival, provided its condition has not changed since the time of sale. Once the return is confirmed, the payment is promptly refunded to your designated account.
¥120,000