SWORD-FURNITURE
branch of art is undoubtedly relief-chiselling, and whether the Goto masters originated that style or merely raised it from a condition of tentative inferiority to a state of the highest perfection, the credit belongs to them of having demonstrated its capabilities, and thus opened to Japanese sculptors a path leading to results absolutely unrivalled in the corresponding work, of other nations. It is worth while to note here that at the beginning of the present century a kōgai, a kozuka or a pair of menuki authenticated as fine specimens of an early Goto master, commanded a price of from £8 to £40.
Recapitulating the art relations of the Goto's work, the broad facts are that they introduced the style of carving in relief without the aid of repoussé; that they invented, or, at all events, raised to an admirable grade, the nanako grounds which form such beautiful fields for metal sculpture of every kind; that they devised the method of "picking out," or plating with various metals in order to produce pictorial effects; and that they carried the process of gold inlaying to a point of delicacy far beyond the conception of previous artists. It is curious that this last development should stand chiefly to the credit of the third representative, Jōshiu, otherwise a comparatively rough expert.
Not until the time of Tokujō, the fifth of the Goto masters, who worked from 1561 to 1631, is there any evidence that guards or fuchi-gashira were among the productions of the family, and, on the whole, their work in that particular line may be dismissed as inappreciable. In fact, guard-making remained for a long time the special business of the armourer, and the method of decoration adopted was either to impart
261
