"Akabun is known as one of the most famous craftsmen of the late Edo period. He was born in Murakami, Echigo Province in 1890 as the third son of the first Unken of the Murakami Katsura family. His elder brother was Sagishu and his younger brother was Nanzan. He first learned the basics of engraving under Sagishu, then went to Tokyo and became a disciple of Tamagawa Masaharu. He was a skilled craftsman and was approached by several domains, but it is said that he chose the Shonai domain, which was close to his hometown of Murakami, Echigo. In 1824, he became the servant of Lord Shai of Shonai, Ushu." (Long)
"It is a masterpiece that is said to have been handed down by the Ii family, a Japanese clan of warriors and aristocrats. Their ancestor, Ii Naomasa, served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a feudal lord in the early modern period, and was given the largest estate in the Tokugawa family at a young age, making him one of the four great kings of the Tokugawa clan. Their descendants, as the head family of the Hikone domain in Omi Province, had the largest rice yield among the fudai feudal lords, and produced a shogunate chief advisor. After the Meiji Restoration, they became a member of the nobility and a count family." (Long) |
