Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/162

 the relative merits of the amida-do, the maru-gama, the dai-unryō, the sho-unryō, the shiri-hari, and a multitude of other shapes esteemed by the tea-clubs. But there is interest in knowing that the manufacture of the tea-urn gave impetus to metal work in general, and that the kama-shi (urn-maker), though proud to be so called, did not by any means confine himself to the production of kama. His work extended to all kinds of metal utensils for the use of the tea-clubs or the furniture of temples, and he cast not only bells and pedestal lamps but even cannon. The Nagoshi family attained the highest reputation as kama-shi. In the sixteenth century the representatives of the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations, Jōyu, Zenshō, and Sanshō (known also by his art name, Jomi), as well as the latter's brother (Sanehisa or Ittan), were conspicuously famous. Sanshō cast a great bell for the temple of the Kyōtō Dai-Butsu, and received the title of Echizen no Shōjō; and Sanehisa manufactured a bronze image sixteen feet high for the same temple. These artists, having enjoyed the patronage of the Taikō and received from him the honorific appellation of Tenka Ichi (first under the sun), refrained from serving the Tokugawa Shōguns. But Sanehisa's younger brother, Iyemasa (or Zuiyetsu), was not influenced by such scruples. The Yedo Government conferred on him the title of Etchu no Shōjō, and in conjunction with his pupils, Onishi, Jōsei, and Jōhō, he founded a school of artists who executed many beautiful works in bronze and iron during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, were munificently supported by the Tokugawa Shōguns, and had titles of rank bestowed on them; a point not unworthy of note, since European writers have denied that Japanese art-