SWORD-FURNITURE
most wonderful examples of Kinai's skill are found. These utensils he could cast of wafer-like thinness, decorating them afterwards with pierced patterns fine as lace. Many exquisite specimens were made by him to order of the feudal chief of Yechizen, who presented them to the Court in Yedo. Thus Kinai's chefs-d'œuvre came to be called Kenjo Kinai (presentation Kinai), a term generally applied in later times to all art productions of superlative excellence. The Kinai experts are specially spoken of for supplementing pierced decoration with surface modelling. After the fame of the family had been established, all the sukashi-bori work produced in Yechizen, whether from the Kinai ateliers or not, was generally classed as Kinai-bori, though Kanemori (1680) and Chiusaku 1700), working independently, turned out many examples so good as to deserve distinct mention.
The Akao family of Yechizen must also be referred to. Its founder, Yoshitsugu, was a contemporary of the first Kinai, and worked in the same style. But it is on account of his son, also called Yoshitsugu, that the family chiefly deserves to be remembered; for this artist (1670) was the first to employ chiselling à jour in the decoration of shakudo guards. Such work had hitherto been confined to iron, but from Yoshitsugu's time it came to be applied to all metals, shakudo, shibuichi, silver, gold, and brass. This new departure may almost be said to mark an epoch, for by skilful employment of the sukashi process the artist was able to produce effects of atmosphere and space which immensely enhanced the beauty of a design.[1] Yoshitsugu[2] subsequently settled in Yedo, and was succeeded by experts of the Akao family through
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