SWORD-FURNITURE
Concerning the Miyōchin family, it is to be noted that they did not contribute much to the decoration of sword-furniture. There were essentially armourers, though they produced also many objects which do not belong to the category of arms or armour,—for example, censers, alcove-ornaments, metal mountings for palanquins, and so forth. The list of Miyōchin masters who worked in the sixteenth century includes many names,—Katsumasa, Katsuiye, Nobuyoshi, Nobusada, Muneaki, Kunishige, Muneharu, Munenori, Munehisa, etc.,—but as makers of sword-mounts they may be dismissed with the remark that they confined themselves to chiselling iron guards with pierced decoration or with wood-grained surface. The name of one, Miyōchin Fusayoshi, has been handed down to posterity on account of his skill in cutting chrysanthemums à jour; and Iyefusa, a pupil of Nobuiye, became celebrated for similar work.
In nearly all cases where an artist achieved success as a worker in metals, a number of students flocked to his workshop, and these, together with his own sons and descendants, founded a line of experts perpetuating the family's name and its style from generation to generation. The Goto and Miyōchin houses are conspicuous examples, but scores of other families swell the list. Several had their origin, and attained special fame, in the sixteenth century. Reference has already been made to the Umetada family, whose representative, Shigeyoshi, became famous at the end of the fourteenth century, working for the Ashikaga Shōgun, Yoshimitsu. A much more highly skilled artist of the same house—also called Shigeyoshi (art name, Miyōju)—chiselled guards with decoration
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