DOI Heft:
No. 35 (February, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Gilbertson, Edward: Japanese chasing and chasers
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0031
Japanese Chasing and Chasers
both the artistic collector and the art worker, and
cannot but regret that in our Art Museums there
are so few opportunities of examining good ex-
amples in a way to make them of practical utility
to the worker in metal.
Besides the technical skill shown in the tsubas
and other sword mounts, the subjects and their
designers possess considerable interest, especially
to those who are conversant with the various styles
of Japanese pictorial art. Although many—pro-
bably most—of the more eminent chasers were
competent to furnish their own designs, they more
frequently worked after those of other artists,
whose names we sometimes find given on the
sword guard. Goto Yujo, for instance, worked
much from the designs of his friend Kano Moto-
nobu, Somin after those of Kano Tanyu, under
whom he studied painting, and of Hanabusa Itcho.
Yasuchika was not only a chaser working after
other artists, but I have a sword guard stated to be
from his design, and Hamano Kuzui in like
manner designed and executed in stone the Six-
teen Rakans at the temple of Tenkokuji. In
fact, had they not been skilful draughtsmen them-
selves, these chasers could not have utilised the
designs of many masters of the earlier and more
classical schools.
At a later period we find many publications of
designs avowedly for sword guards and mounts, or
for ornamental work, but even with these a vast
deal is left to be supplied by the chaser, for they
are in outline. We not infrequently meet with two
or more copies from the same design, sometimes
by the same chaser, and this enables us to see how
he has dealt with the drawing from which he
worked, and how the metal he used, or the style
he employed, induced him to modify the composi-
tion. The Buddhist sacred personages and sub-
jects seem to have been chiefly derived from the
painters of the classical school, judging from the
style, and the Kano school also furnished many of
the more or less impressionist arrangements of
emblematic plants, &C, such as plum or sakura
trees and branches, most of which, however, were
very well and skilfully drawn.
FIG. II.—WAVES AND BLOSSOM UNSIGNED
FIG. 10.—PLUM BLOSSOM
BY MASACII1KA
FIG. 12.—KOSEKIKO AND CIIORIO
BY YOSHIIIARU
*9
both the artistic collector and the art worker, and
cannot but regret that in our Art Museums there
are so few opportunities of examining good ex-
amples in a way to make them of practical utility
to the worker in metal.
Besides the technical skill shown in the tsubas
and other sword mounts, the subjects and their
designers possess considerable interest, especially
to those who are conversant with the various styles
of Japanese pictorial art. Although many—pro-
bably most—of the more eminent chasers were
competent to furnish their own designs, they more
frequently worked after those of other artists,
whose names we sometimes find given on the
sword guard. Goto Yujo, for instance, worked
much from the designs of his friend Kano Moto-
nobu, Somin after those of Kano Tanyu, under
whom he studied painting, and of Hanabusa Itcho.
Yasuchika was not only a chaser working after
other artists, but I have a sword guard stated to be
from his design, and Hamano Kuzui in like
manner designed and executed in stone the Six-
teen Rakans at the temple of Tenkokuji. In
fact, had they not been skilful draughtsmen them-
selves, these chasers could not have utilised the
designs of many masters of the earlier and more
classical schools.
At a later period we find many publications of
designs avowedly for sword guards and mounts, or
for ornamental work, but even with these a vast
deal is left to be supplied by the chaser, for they
are in outline. We not infrequently meet with two
or more copies from the same design, sometimes
by the same chaser, and this enables us to see how
he has dealt with the drawing from which he
worked, and how the metal he used, or the style
he employed, induced him to modify the composi-
tion. The Buddhist sacred personages and sub-
jects seem to have been chiefly derived from the
painters of the classical school, judging from the
style, and the Kano school also furnished many of
the more or less impressionist arrangements of
emblematic plants, &C, such as plum or sakura
trees and branches, most of which, however, were
very well and skilfully drawn.
FIG. II.—WAVES AND BLOSSOM UNSIGNED
FIG. 10.—PLUM BLOSSOM
BY MASACII1KA
FIG. 12.—KOSEKIKO AND CIIORIO
BY YOSHIIIARU
*9