Masters of Nara Kinko: How Sugiura Joi, Nara Toshinaga, and Tsuchiya Yasuchika Elevated Sword Fittings to Individual Art

The Emergence of Nara Kinko — The Age of Individual Craftsmen

In the mid-Edo period (late 17th to early 18th century), a revolutionary change occurred in the world of sword mountings (kodogu). The paradigm of sword mounting history underwent a fundamental shift: from the production method that had prevailed until then—the Gotō family (Gotouke) dominated system of "following school rules and producing quantities of unified designs"—to a creative approach where "individual craftsmen engage with single pieces according to their own aesthetic sensibilities."

The Gotō family was a prestigious house that built a monopolistic position as official metalworkers for the shogunal and daimyo families from the late Muromachi through the early Edo period. The "Gotō carving" (Gotō-bori) they established—a style expressing classical plants and animals through high-relief gold carving on a shakudo ground—reached a high level of technical sophistication. Yet conversely, subordination to established rules also inhibited the expression of individuality.

It was a group of metalworkers active in Nara (present-day Nara Prefecture) who broke through this stagnation, commonly known as "Nara kinko" (Nara metalworkers). Nara was an ancient capital with an accumulation of Buddhist culture and aristocratic crafts since the Asuka and Nara periods, and it was a place where rich aesthetic inspiration—including treasures in temples and shrines and imported objects—thrived. This cultural foundation nurtured a new metalworking art centered on realism and individuality.

The three master craftsmen remembered by posterity are Sugiura Jōi (Sugiura Joui), Nara Toshinaga (Nara Toshinaga), and Tsuchiya Yasuchika (Tsuchiya Yasuchika). Each of the three possessed entirely different individual characteristics, and this very diversity speaks to the richness of Nara kinko.

Sugiura Jōi (1701–1761)—The Pioneer Who Opened the Path of Nara Kinko

Sugiura Jōi was the pioneer of Nara kinko, the metalworker who first carved out the path that subsequent craftsmen would follow. He is said to have learned technique from artisans in the Gotō tradition, and while inheriting high-level carving skills, he gradually moved away from stylistic constraints toward freer expression.

What characterized Jōi's work was "intellectual balance between realism and formalism." While he worked with classical motifs such as dragons, tigers, hawks, peonies, and chrysanthemums in the Gotō tradition, the density of his carving and vitality of his work clearly surpassed those of the previous generation. Particularly in his detailed rendering of fur and feathers lay a precision that would find full expression in the later work of Nara Toshinaga, and his direct influence on his disciples and successors is immeasurable.

The historical role that Jōi played lay in establishing the self-awareness of "a metalworker with a personal signature." While works made by the Gotō family conventionally did not bear the maker's individual name, Jōi's works carried a mei (signature), which became the fundamental basis for authentication and evaluation. This single point symbolizes the opening of the "age of individual art" in Japanese sword mounting history.

Nara Toshinaga (1667–1737)—Master of the Highest Peak of Nara Kinko

Of the three masters, Nara Toshinaga received the highest regard and produced the most works designated as important objects. His name is passed down to this day as a synonym for Nara kinko itself.

Toshinaga's Technical Characteristics

Toshinaga's carving reached a level that can only be described as "ultra-precise realism." The density with which every individual animal hair, every vein of a plant leaf, every fold of clothing and subtlety of facial expression is compressed into the small area of a tsuba, menuki, or kozuka transcends craftsmanship and enters the realm of sculptural art.

Toshinaga's skillful use of materials was also a major strength. He combined iron, shakudo, shibuichi (an alloy of silver and copper), gold, silver, and yamakane with great sophistication, creating three-dimensional space through contrasts of color and texture. For example, in a composition where a dynamic dragon wrought in high-relief gold is placed against a subdued shakudo ground and waves are expressed in the muted tones of shibuichi, the materials themselves become part of the depiction—a sophisticated form of expression.

Representative Subjects and Compositional Strength

Toshinaga's favored subjects included "tigers and bamboo," "hawks and pine," "dragons and waves," "depictions of old men and immortals," and "Chinese lions and peonies." While these are auspicious designs from ancient times, under Toshinaga's hand their formulaic symbolism disappeared and they acquired the power of captured living moments.

His compositional ability to contain a complete world within a small surface is equally outstanding. The use of negative space, the flow of the viewer's gaze, the suggestion of foreground, middle ground, and background—these painterly compositional sensibilities were brought into metalwork, and this is why Toshinaga's works are called "paintings in sword mountings."

Many of his works have been designated as Important or Especially Important Sword Mountings by the NBTHK and are held in major collections both domestically and internationally. His market value is also exceptionally high, and authenticated works immediately attract attention when they appear.

Tsuchiya Yasuchika (1670–1744)—An Innovator Who Embraced Western Styles

Of the three masters, Tsuchiya Yasuchika stands out most distinctly and continues to astonish later scholars. Yasuchika's innovation lay in his active adoption of "Western style" (youfu).

Even under Japan's seclusion policy in the Edo period, trade with the Dutch continued through Dejima in Nagasaki, and Western books, prints, and objects reached scholars and craftspeople through limited distribution channels. Yasuchika was acutely stimulated by these foreign influences and transformed them into his expression in sword mountings.

Specific Methods of Incorporating Western Styles

Among the techniques Yasuchika employed, particularly noteworthy is his introduction of "linear perspective." While Japanese painting had traditionally favored flat and bird's-eye spatial representation, Yasuchika's works possess a sense of depth and spatial recession. His intellectual reworking of Western printmaking techniques into three-dimensional sculpture was virtually unprecedented among metalworkers of that era.

His choice of motifs was equally bold. Plant designs apparently referenced from European botanical and natural history illustrations, Western-style architectural landscapes including castles and towers, and depictions of animals Japanese had not actually seen—lions, elephants, peacocks—the very selection of subjects was a challenge to established concepts of sword mountings.

This "fusion of Japanese and Western" occurred contemporaneously with the "Rangaku" (Dutch learning) boom that took place in the mid-Edo period, and Yasuchika's works are not only technical achievements but also material testimony to Japan-West cultural contact in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Comparison of the Three Masters—Diversity as the Strength of Nara Kinko

While the three masters' individual characteristics were distinct and contrasting, they shared a common stance: "independence from Gotō family style" and "engaging with materials through one's own eye and hand." This shared spiritual foundation gives meaning to the grouping known as "Nara kinko."

The Legacy of Nara Kinko and Its Influence on Edo Kinko

The methodology established by the three masters spread widely among metalworkers throughout Edo. In particular, Yokoya Sōmin (1670–1733) was a metalworker who broke away from the Gotō school to establish Edo-machi-bori (Edo town carving), creating his own metalworking style by combining painterly realistic depiction with color-enhancement techniques using gold, silver, and copper in his carving. Sōmin's sources lay in Edo painting, including works by Hanabusa Itchō, and he maintained a parallel and competitive relationship with the Nara masters. Sōmin's lineage formed a major current called "late-Edo realistic kinko."

This stream continued until the end of the Edo period and, through metalworkers in various regions, exerted indirect influence on modern craft after the Meiji Restoration. The seed of "realism through the individual eye" sown by Nara kinko fundamentally transformed the soil of Japanese metalworking art.

Conclusion—Elevating Sword Mountings to "Individual Art"

The greatest achievement of the three Nara kinko masters was elevating sword mountings from "school products" to "individual artistic expression." An intense individuality such that one's works can be identified by signature and style alone—this is an extremely rare achievement even in Japanese craft history.

Sugiura Jōi opened the path, Nara Toshinaga reached its peak, and Tsuchiya Yasuchika expanded the horizon. The very breadth of possibility demonstrated by the three in different directions is what positions Nara kinko as an "event" in sword mounting history. Today, their works standing quietly behind museum glass cases are crystallizations of Edo-period intellect and aesthetic sensibility woven in the medium of metal.