This artist, Masanori, is not listed either in the Soken Kisho or in S. Hara's indispensable record of the makers of sword-fittings, but judging from the quality of his work, he was a skilled craftsman, as well as a man of deep artistic feeling. Having so treated the iron as to produce a wax-like patina of dark brown, he chiselled on both sides portions of a landscape in Chinese style which, though in monotone, opened up vistas of distinct charm. In the foreground an old gnarled pine clutches with its roots the rocky ground whereon the figure of a man, bent with age and leaning on a staff, is standing, overlooking an abyss. Above and beyond are the inevitable pagoda roofs and the towering mountains with trees hanging from the crevices. Many such landscapes appear on Bushu guards. While most of the members of the Okada family worked in Choshu, Masatoyo dwelt in Yedo in the first half of the nineteenth century and reflected in his sword-fittings the style of his master Masatsune, who sometimes signed his products Jingoro.

The names Nobufusa and Yoshifusa, dwellers of Bushu, are inscribed upon two tsuba, each of which is of iron and in the form of an animal. The first artist has modelled a tethered ox in recumbent position, cleverly chased in the round so as to represent on the obverse the front view, while on the reverse the under part of the body and the legs of the animal are sculptured. A standing horse whose bridle lies upon the ground and outlines the lower part of the rim, forms the guard signed by Yoshifusa , an unknown artist, so far as the records go, and one not to be confused with several other artists of this name written with different characters. Strongly influenced by Soten of Hikone was one sword-guard maker by name Horiguchi Goro, who lived in Hashu, but who travelled to Bushu.

There is a tsuba in the Naunton collection (No. 975), which is signed "Horiguchi Genjo," evidently the name of another member of the same family. Nothing more can be found regarding these artists. The subject depicted on this guard is the famous encounter between Watanabe and the Oni at Rashomon gate. This tenth-century hero was the retainer of Minamoto no Yorimitsu, known as Raiko, the warrior who slew the Spider Demon and hosts of ogres and goblins. Thinking that his master had banished all of the demons, Watanabe, on hearing of a creature which appeared at night on the gate of Rashomon near Kyoto, boastingly wrote out a challenge which he signed with his name and stuck upon the gate post. There at Rashomon he took his place and awaited the visitor. Watching until late in the night, he fell asleep, but was soon wakened by a tug at his helmet. Thrusting his sword into the dark, he struck something, which, with a terrible shriek, hurried away, leaving behind a large arm. This he carried away and hid in a strong box, never showing it to any one, until one day an old woman, who said she was his nurse, begged to see it. As he opened the box, she turned into a witch, seized the arm and ran off. The artist has chosen that moment when Watanabe wakens and seizes his sword to strike the demon which is above on the gate in relief of copper. Watanabe's determined face is inlaid in the same metal, while the details of his armor are carefully picked out in gold nunome. His frightened horse gallops away on the reverse side, where the storm clouds roll above the wooden gateway.

It does not seem necessary to detail further the products of the Bushii metal-workers ; for they are many, and their work, while good in quality and interesting in subject, is not extraordinary. They were strongly influenced in their designs by certain artists in Choshu Province, on the opposite side of the mainland and much to the south of Yedo. These men modelled some tsuba of unusual beauty. Particularly is this true of those iron guards with black patina which bear upon their chiselled surfaces charming landscapes in Chinese style taken from paintings of the Sesshii and Kano schools. In this vein did certain members of the Okada family work, one of whom, as we have seen, migrated to Bushu. Established by Nobumasa at the end of the seventeenth century, the Okada family, for several generations, dwelt in Hagi in Choshu, having come there from Kyoto.

A tsuba by Masatomo, one of the later workers of this group, illustrates the tendencies of this family in the art of metal work. The subject is that of a simple landscape in the foreground of which three horses are grazing in a mountain pass. A fourth, sculptured in the same low relief, gallops along the water's edge on the reverse side of the guard. A tsuba by Nakahara Yukitoshi (1800) is adorned with a landscape in pure Chinese style. The unusual surface of this and other Choshu examples was brought out by a pickling process which gave to the iron a glowing, black color similar to that of the Satsuma tsuba. Many of the Choshu workers utilized this method of treating their iron, as is evidenced in certain pieces made by members of the Nakai family who are said to have been chisellers of sword-furniture as early as the fourteenth century. It was in the seventeenth century, however, that Nakai Nobutsune, the founder of this school in Choshu, came to Hagi and began to attract attention on account of his excellent work. He was followed by Tomoyuki and Tomotsune who perfected a style of chiselling a jour which was carried on by many nineteenth-century artists. Among them was Yukimitsu of the Isobe family who used the name Gennojo. From black iron he has skillfully sculptured a tsuba in which he has combined a naturalistic design of gourd vines and fruits with the formal crest of two famous families. On either side of the guard there are two mon in the form of a double flower of five petals. This crest is that of the Ota family which was represented by daimyo in the provinces Musashi, Dewa, Tamba, and Yamato, from the early fifteenth century on. The other crest, a circle with two bars, which appears only once on each side of this tsuba, was at one time adopted by the Hosokawa family, but is generally associated with that of the Narita, daimyo under the Tokugawa shoguns. The origin of the design of this crest is interestingly told by T. McClatchie, "The founder of this family, so the tale runs, was once engaged in one of the frequent wars on the eastern marches of Japan, and his provisions having failed, was put to great straits to obtain food,—a battle being imminent at the time. Casting his eyes around, he espied in the mountains a small shrine, and entering this, found laid therein as an offering a bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks. The pangs of hunger overcame any religious scruples that Narita may have possessed; he seized the bowl and devoured the rice, and refreshed by this timely sustenance, went forth and bore himself gallantly in the fight. In it he earned considerable distinction, and ascribing this to the favor of the deity whose shrine he had invaded, he took for his badge the circle and two lines as a rough delineation of the rice-bowl and chopsticks."

The cherry-blossom seems to have inspired certain Choshu artists who usually carved it in an informal all-over design with occasional spaces of openwork. Tomohisa of the Yamachi family states on a tsuba that he was a resident of Hagi. He sometimes signed his mounts "Sakunoshin." The guard is in the form of an elongated cross with squared corners, and the iron is of a soft brown texture. Within the narrow, plain rim are full blown cherry-blossoms with stamens tipped with gold relief and tight buds finished with kebori. Tsunenaga records on an iron tsuba that he was a resident of Hagi. Thereon he has carved in the round several blossoms and leaves of the omodaka (Alisma plantago). Another design based on a naturalistic motive is treated freely on the tsuba of very black iron inscribed with the signature of Toyoaki *H. Strohl, Japanisches Wappenbuch, pp. 134-135; and E. Papinot, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie du Japon, p. 580. This nineteenth-century artist was the son of Tomokata of the Okamoto family. On the reverse of the tsuba is incised Shukud hitsu ("from a painting of Shukuo"). After the manner of some of the Higo guards, this piece is formed by the round carving of a gnarled trunk of the plum-tree with budding and blossoming branches finished with surface engraving and inlays of gold in the centres of the flowers. Much of the low-relief chasing seen in Choshu work is lightened with inlay of nunome-zogan, which may have been due to the influence of Umetada Myoju who was at this time creating his examples of inlay. It more often suggests, however, on account of its broad treatment, the work of the Shoami or even that of Soten of Hikone. Particularly is this true of the figures which appear on the sword-fittings made by the members of the Tetsugendo school which was founded by Okamoto Naoshige of Choshu in the eighteenth century. Though he moved to Kyoto where he set up his atelier called Tetsugendo ("Hall of the Iron Principle"), he is always associated with the Choshu group, since the family Okamoto from which he sprang was one of the most famous in the whole province. Naoshige used the names Toshiyuki and Shoraku, often writing the former in seal characters inlaid in gold. He was followed by a nephew, Xaofusa, who, possessed of considerable talent, did not carve the forceful designs which Naoshige sculptured. Hanabusa Itcho, the celebrated painter who died in 1724, is said to have influenced the designs adopted by Naoshige. Though he painted several naturestudies of great beauty, he is particularly famed for his comic drawings, and satirical designs which finally were the cause of his banishment. There are in this collection two kashira made of brown wax-like iron, which may have been taken directly from some of this master's drawings. Each is in the form of a mask with crooked nose and wrinkled brow and with the corners of the toothless mouth drawn down. The skin seems to be that of withered age, and apparently hangs in soft folds. This little sculpture is signed with the seal, in gold, used by the Tetsugendo artists. The same signature is to be seen on the tsuba, decorated with a design which was used over and over again on fittings made by this group. This may not be an original work of either Naoshige or Naofusa, for their work was much imitated, and this particular motive seems to have been the common property of all their followers. 'Whether it is taken from a design of Hanabusa Itcho is not known. We do know, however, that a similar storm-picture, included among the paintings owned by the British Museum, is attributed to Hanabusa Itcho. On both sides of the tsuba a storm rages, the rain falling in slanting lines, the lightning flashing from out the sweeping clouds and people everywhere hurrying to shelter. Above the thatched roof of the cottage, where four men huddle, may be seen Raiden, the thunder god, with four of his drums decorated with the mitsu-tomoye. The faces of the people are inlaid in relief of copper and silver, the lightning is in relief of gold. Executed in the manner of the Tetsugendo school is the unsigned fuchikashira of iron. The sculpturing of the brown iron on the fuchi is unusually good. As though done in repousse, the writhing form of the eight-headed dragon emerges, scattering the golden, foam-flecked waves and angrily looking with flaming eyes beneath shaggy brows toward Suzano-wo who stands on the head-piece. He is a heavy set, bearded figure with one hand thrust forward, the other behind him gripping his weapon ready to sever the eight heads with flaming fangs from the neck of the beast. The details on the hero's armor are outlined in gold relief ; his eyes are of gold, in his ear is a ring, and on his forehead, a fillet of the same metal. It is not often that one finds the dragon truthfully portrayed with all eight heads in accordance with the legend as told in the Kojiki (see p. 25). Many similar fittings have the dragon, but only two or three heads are visible. The subject is naturally a most appropriate one with which to adorn the sword, for it will be remembered that after the beheading of the beast, Suzano-wo's sword struck something hard in the tail of the dragon ; and on cutting it open, he discovered the great double-edged sword which is one of the three sacred emblems of Japan.
from JAPANESE SWORD-MOUNTS by Helen C. Gunsaulus