Shoki and ittle devil Kozuka

[deskjet]

Hi ,

I have avery good quality iron and mixed metal gold /siver kozuka (provenance) Edward Drummod Libbey collection Toledo museam of art 3.7/8 inch long it is very well carved and i believe it is Shoki and a little devil ,could anybody throw any light as to possible school or smith.thanks Anthony

[Justin]

Hi Anthony,

 

It is difficult to see from the photo, but is the high relief decoration complimented with areas of sunken relief (ie. recessed below the ground metal)? It appears this way from shoki's feet.

 

If so, then I would suggest the Hamano or Mito school.

 

From the looks of it, the Hamano school tended to do alot of shoki/oni kozuka.

 

It appears that poor old shoki was too slow in this case - as the oni is escaping through the hole at the top.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Regards

Justin

 

P.S. It is a nice kozuka.

[deskjet]

Hi Justin ,

Yes the kozuka does have areas of recessed carving and high relif the picture does not show it to well ,the iron is a very nice chocolate colour .Thanks for the infomation

Anthony

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Anthony,

 

I have a slightly different take on you kozuka. The areas of the design which are below the surface of the ground, intaglio or shishiai-bori in Japanese, is very characteristic of Sugiura Joi and his followers. He was a Kyoto based artist, who, along with Nara Toshinaga and Tsuchiya yasuchika made up the so called "Nara san saku"; the three makers of Nara. The use of iron in this way with quite high relief is actually somewhat reminiscent of Toshinaga too. The shape of the kozuka butt is Higo-esque though, Higo was close to kyoto so there could easily be some influence there.

 

So I'd place it in that area and probably second half of the Edo period.

 

regards, Ford

[deskjet]

Hi Ford,

Thanks for the information it would be nice if it was made by one of the NARA SAN SAKU, the carving and metalwork are outstanding ,the photo does not do it justice thanks again.

Anthony

 

:lol: