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

The founder, Ishiguro [Japanese text] Masatsune I (1760-1828), had a very large following up to the middle of the 19^th century, whose work was much in demand with the samurai.

An offshoot of the Yanagawa through Katō Naotsune, the school nevertheless develops an individual style, showing a preference for minute incrustations on the soft metals, coupled with delicate modelling. Birds, dishes and insects, trees, flowers and blossoming hedges, form the favourite subjects.

Mokkō-shaped tsuba with phoenixes amid clouds (EAX.11029)    Lenticular tsuba with a hawk on a pine tree (EAX.11030)    Tsuba with tadpoles swimming in a stream (EAX.11031)

Tsuba with quails and autumn flowers (EAX.11032)    Tsuba with flying cranes (EAX.11033)    Tsuba with cranes standing beneath a pine tree (EAX.11034)

Tsuba with cherry blossoms (EAX.11035)    Mokkō-shaped tsuba with clematis (EAX.11036)    Tsuba with owl perched on a plum branch (EAX.11037)

Tsuba with clematis (EAX.11038)    Tsuba with mantis and lespedeza (EAX.11039)    Tsuba with clouds and butterflies (EAX.11040)

Tsuba with cherry tree and clouds (EAX.11041)    Tsuba with dragonflies (EAX.11042)    Tsuba with peonies and butterflies (EAX.11043)