Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/250



Tsūjō. It resembles the best productions of Mitsutaka, the present (1781) representative of the family. One is reminded of a man reaching his goal by steadily treading the right road. There is also an element of balanced strength that suggests the fabulous serpent of Jōzan, which could defend itself equally with either end.

13. Yenjō, called also Mitsutaka; son of Jūjō, was born in 1720 and died in 1784. Criticised unreservedly, his works seem to vary in quality. The best are not unlike the productions of Tsūjō, for which they may easily be mistaken. The lustre of his house is not tarnished, nor the long-sustained reputation of his family impaired, in his hands.

Since the death of Yūjō, the founder of the family, two hundred and sixty years have passed. During that time the works of the masters from generation to generation have found their way into the hands of the great and the noble, who treasure them as precious possessions, their value augmenting as time rolls on. That is because the art of the illustrious ancestor has been adorned by the achievements of his descendants, every one of whom was himself a master. These happy results are mainly due, however, to the peaceful sway by which we are blessed, and to the tranquil times when men have leisure to show their respect for the dignity of a sword by the decoration they lavish on its mountings.

14. Keijo, called also Mitsumori, son of Yenjō, was born in 1739, and is still living (1781) in the Kyobashi district of Yedo. The work of this artist has the beauty of his grand- father Tsūjō's carving, together with the well-balanced arrangement of his predecessors. His style is his own. There is a tender suggestiveness about his designs that reminds one of a light shower sweeping across the verdant slope of a mountain, or a soft haze resting on the bosom of a limpid lake. His work always shows that noble elevation of tone which belongs to the true artist and can never be imitated.

N. B. Here follow facsimiles of the certificates orikami (lit. "folded paper") given by the Goto experts, but such documents convey no information to foreign readers, and, moreover, have been so often and so successfully forged that to distinguish the true from the false is now almost as diffi-