Nara Toshihisa - Nara Toshihisa

Japanese: 奈良利寿 - なら・としなが

Year of death: 14th December 1737 (14th January 1737)
Year of birth: 1667
A mid-Edo period swordsmith. He lived in Edo and was known as Taibei. He is said to have been a disciple of either the third head of the Nara school, Toshiharu, or the fourth head of the Nara school, Toshinaga. He was highly praised as one of the Nara Three Masterpieces along with his contemporaries, Tsuchiya Yasuchika and Sugiura Noriyoshi, and was highly valued. He was the older of the three and was also the most skilled carver in terms of carving techniques. Looking at his surviving works, he excelled in making tsuba, but there are very few tsuba. All of his tsuba are made of thickly layered iron, and they are unique in their high-pitched carving and inlay techniques that consciously use a mix of coarse and dense. His representative works include the Important Cultural Property "Mure Takamatsu Tsuba" (private collection) and "Omori Hikoshichi Tsuba" (private collection). His tsuba are often low and sophisticated, and are made of brass, red copper, yonichi, iron, etc., and are made using Toshiharu's style of thin-walled carving mixed with hoe carving to depict flowers, birds, and people. His representative works include "Moon and Wild Geese Fuchigashira" (Tokyo University of the Arts Collection) and "Wild Geese Fuchigashira" (Private Collection). He created a unique realm within the small world of sword fittings known as fuchigashira. The inscriptions on both the tsuba and the fuchigashira are always inscribed with a kao. He is said to have been buried at the Soto Zen sect of Buddhism, Chikurinzan Tafuku-in Temple (Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo). There is also a theory that Riju was the son of two successive generations of the same name (the second generation may have died in 1771). <References> Kashima Susumu (ed.), "Sword Fittings" (Shibundo, "Japanese Art", No. 64)

(Kashima Masaru)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：元文1.12.14(1737.1.14)
生年：寛文7(1667)
江戸中期の装剣金工家。江戸に住し,通称を太兵衛。奈良派本家3代目利治の門下とも,4代目利永の門下とも伝えられる。同時代の土屋安親,杉浦乗意と共に奈良三作との称賛を得、珍重された。3人の中では年齢的に上で,彫技においても最もすぐれた名工である。現存する作品をみると縁頭の制作に秀で,鐔は極めて少ない。鐔はすべて重ねの厚い鉄地で,粗密を意識的に使い分けた高肉彫りや象嵌の技法に独特なものがある。代表作には重要文化財「牟礼高松図鐔」(個人蔵)や「大森彦七図鐔」(個人蔵)がある。縁頭は腰が低い洗練された形のものが多く,真鍮をはじめ,赤銅,四分一,鉄などを用い,利寿一流の薄肉彫りを主体に鋤彫りを織りまぜ,花鳥や人物などを表している。代表作に「月に雁図縁頭」(東京芸大蔵)や「雁図縁頭」(個人蔵)が挙げられる。縁頭という刀装具の中でも小さな世界に独自の境地を作りだした。鐔,縁頭とも銘にはかならず花押が記されている。曹洞宗竹林山多福院(東京都文京区小石川)に葬られたという。なお,利寿には同名2代説(2代は1771年没か)もある。<参考文献>加島進編『刀装具』(至文堂『日本の美術』64号)

(加島勝)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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