Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/296

 à jour in the middle of the sixteenth century, thus bringing the Umetada family into greater repute than ever. There was a third Shigeyoshi (art name, Meishin), who, though he flourished in the seventeenth century (1630), may be mentioned here for the sake of distinctness. This last, working for the Court in Yedo, received the honorary title of Hō-kyo, and added chiselling in relief to the à jour decoration which alone had been practised by his predecessors. Thus it may be said that the Umetada family had three epochs,—its début upon the art stage at the beginning of the eleventh century when its then noble representative, Tachibana no Munechika, became the renowned swordsmith known through all time as Sanjō nō Kōkaji; its earliest remarkable connection with guard-chiselling in the days of the first Shigeyoshi (1400); and its attainment of high rank in that line when (1630) the third Shigeyoshi (Meishin) worked for the second Tokugawa Shōgun. This somewhat tedious analysis is made because great confusion has crept into the writings of European connoisseurs in the matter of the Umetada family. The reader will understand that the family did not cease to produce skilled experts after the third Shigeyoshi, but it is impossible to find space here for detailed reference except in the case of great celebrities.

The Muneta family, which gave to Japan another long line of experts, was founded in Kyōtō in 1520 by Matazayemon. At first the Muneta masters confined themselves to working in silver, but Matabei (1560), grandson of Matazayemon, having invented the style of nanako called go-no-me (as already mentioned), he and his successors, down to the middle of the century, are chiefly remembered for their skill