Yokoya Tiger Daisho Tsuba
K0055
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
A fine Yokoya dai sho tsuba of tigers and bamboo in katakiribori and keibori on the face, and Katabami mon in keibori on the reverse. The plate is polished shibuichi with a golden tan color. The Katabami mon was used by several of the minor Daimyo families. Robert Haynes commented on the fine quality of the katakiribori. The gold sekigane has yasuri in a rain pattern. Dai: 7.93 cm x 7.62 cm. 2.8 mm at the mimi 4.4 mm at seppa dai. Sho: 7.52 cm x 7.26 cm 2.8 mm at the mimi 4.3 at the seppa dai. The grey image is to show the detail of the carving, the other pictures more accurately present the color. There is some minor scratching on the back of the dai as shown.
The Yokoya school was founded Yokoya Soyo, who was a student of Goto Injo, and lived in Kyoto. He accompanied Goto Sokujo when he was ordered to to move to Edo by the Tokugawa. He was appointed as an official fittings maker. Somin, 1670 -1733, first studied with the Goto. Soyo died in 1691, so the age of twenty-one, Somin ( named Sochi at the time) succeeded his father as fittings maker to the Tokugawa. He tired of this, and around the age of twenty-eight, he set up shop in the Kanda district of Edo, and changed his name to Somin. He abandoned the rigid formal style of the Goto, and striking up a friendship with the painter Hanabusa Iccho, introduced Japanese painting styles into his metal work.