Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/321

 Teruhide: "His chiselling has force that would rend a rock. His wave diapers deeply carved in shibuichi are magnificent, and nothing could exceed the beauty of his peonies in high relief on aventurine grounds. He seems to have based his method of carving flowers on Sōmin's celebrated ichirin-botan (single-blossom peony). His martial figures also are grand." It may be said that peonies and Dogs of Fo (shishi) were Teruhide's specialties. Among ten choice examples of his work in a Tōkyō collection, only two are without peony flowers either in the principal or a subordinate place. Many artists bore the family name after Teruhide's time, but although their work was of the finest quality from a decorative point of view, they scarcely merit special mention on account of their glyptic skill.

Concerning the Iwamoto family of Yedo the same remark applies as that made about the Omori, namely, that although founded in the seventeenth century, it did not become famous until the eighteenth. The founder was Chiubei (1680), a pupil of the celebrated Yoko-ya Sōmin, and the family's greatest master was Konkwan (1760-1801), who is counted one of Japan's most skilled chisellers of fishes of all kinds (especially Crustacea), but who also carved with admirable ability wild-fowl, insects, flowers and even figures. Konkwan had three art names, but he seems to have always marked his pieces Iwamoto Konkwan. The productions of the Iwamoto experts were not so elaborately decorative as those of the Omori, but as an artist Konkwan is certainly not inferior to Teruhide. It is recorded that during the latter years of his life the Iwamoto master was so besieged by clients