SWORD-FURNITURE
in that kind of work. Muneta Naomichi (1660)—art name, Dochoku—was the first of the family to attain great distinction for chiselling in high relief and in the shishi-ai-bori method (recessed carving). He and his sons, Naoshige and Naomine, worked in Ōsaka, and are among the most celebrated experts of that city.
The Aoki family also came into notice in this century. It was founded (1580) by Jubei (art name, Tetsujin, i.e. worker in iron), who entered the service of the feudal chief of Higo, and settled at Hasuike in that province. Jubei is often spoken of as the successor of Kaneiye, apparently because he resembled the latter in style and was not much inferior to him in skill. He also has the credit of introducing brass into the decorative designs on iron sword-guards. But the latter specialty is more correctly associated with the name of Jingo, who worked at Yatsushiro, in the same province of Higo, in 1630. Jingo's guards have brass decoration, boldly chiselled in very high relief. They were always greatly appreciated in Japan, though their workmanship scarcely seems to merit that distinction. Jingo-tsuba came to be the generic term for all guards having brass decorative designs on an iron ground.
The Soami family was founded at the end of the fourteenth century by Masanori, but its work did not attract public attention until the time (1410) of Takatsune, who lived in Kyōtō and chiselled guards with pierced decoration. Representatives of the family were working in various parts of the country in the sixteenth century, but their productions had not yet become remarkable.
Towards the close of the century Hideyoshi, the
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