Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The characteristic style of this school was established by Ōtsuki Mitsuoki (1766-1834) of Kiōto. Discarding the classical models of the Kanō school of painting, he adopted the designs of his teacher, the painter Ganku. Some of his best work was in katakiri engraving, but he also practised modelling, incrustation and inlay, and his style was perpetuated by a little group of pupils, among whom Kawaraba-yashi (or Kawa) Hideoki, Sasayama Tokuoki, and Tenkōdō Hidekuni are the most noteworthy.

Natsuo

Connected with the Ōtsuki School to some extent is that consummate artist in metal, Kanō Natsuo (1828-1898), who adopted a style peculiar to himself and was the last of the great masters of sword-furniture. The wonderful colouring and surface-treatment of his metal grounds (shakudō especially) and the sympathetic delicacy of his modelling have never been surpassed. After the Imperial Restoration (1868) Natsuo removed from Kiōto to Yedo (Tōkiō).

Tsuba with snow-covered tree (EAX.11051)    Aori-shaped tsuba depicting a man preparing to write a poem (EAX.11052)    Tsuba with flying cuckoo and crescent moon (EAX.11053)

Aori-shaped tsuba depicting Shōki in a rain storm (EAX.11054)    Tsuba with standing egret (EAX.11055)    Tsuba with mulberry leaves (EAX.11056)

Aori-shaped tsuba depicting a fisherman on a riverbank (EAX.11057)    Tsuba with blossoming cherry tree (EAX.11058)    Tsuba depicting a sakaki branch with gohei, or papercut pendants (EAX.11059)

Aori-shaped tsuba depicting a pigeon perched on a willow tree (EAX.11060)    Aori-shaped tsuba depicting the fisherman Urashimatarō with a minogame, or sacred tortoise (EAX.11061)    Octagonal tsuba with pine trees in driving rain (EAX.11063)