Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/337

 Uchino Harutoshi (art name, Ichigenshi), was scarcely less celebrated, and four others helped, in a lesser degree, to perpetuate his fame. Later in the century Yedo produced an artist of the very highest skill, Kano Natsuo. He worked from 1850 to 1895, and certainly deserves to be called one of the most admirable chisellers of incised designs that Japan has known in any era. Natsuo learned the art, from Aoka Harutsura, of Kyōtō, himself a skilled expert; and Harutsura's teacher, Kajutsura, deserves to be mentioned as an exceptionally successful chiseller of insects. Natsuo's early works were chiefly chiselled in medium relief. His range of subjects was wide. He could represent a group of autumn flowers, a spray of plum, or a tiny insect as skilfully as a mythological figure or a historical scene. After fame and prosperity had come to him, he ceased to carve in relief, and confined himself to incised and kata-kiri chiselling, with results of which it would be difficult to write in too laudatory a strain. He did not easily accept an order or make any effort to produce largely. Genuine specimens of his work are therefore rare, and when one comes into the market, it is purchased by Japanese connoisseurs at a great price. Contemporary with Natsuo in the latter's early years was Honjo Yoshitane, of Yedo. He not only chiselled the mounts of swords but also forged their blades, and he is placed by his countrymen in the very foremost rank of artists. Yamagawa Koji, of Kanazawa (in Kaga), was another of the most prominent figures in the nineteenth century. He worked from 1830 to 1877, chiefly in the kebori and kata-kiri styles, and in his later years he received the name of "Kanazawa Sōmin" in recognition of his great abilities.