Zwei bei der Arbeit
Two Farmers at Work, Ko-Goto
A Ko-Goto kozuka of shakudo, its nanako ground worn almost smooth. The fine grain survives only in patches, and copper shows through in many places. Two small figures in gold are set on it in high relief. One crouches over his work, bent forward, a long tool in his hands. The other sits a little apart beside a basket. Rocks and grass rise at the left end, and a narrow rim of gold runs round the whole field.
They are farmers in the field, not gods or heroes, and the kozuka shows them without a story. On the collection’s kozuka by Goto Injo the nanako is still crisp. Here long handling has rubbed it down.
The kozuka is unsigned and has no paper. An earlier version of this page attributed it to the Ko-Goto, the early generations of the Goto school, and placed it in the Momoyama period. The collection keeps that as a loose idea. Gold figures on nanako were not the Goto’s alone, and another early workshop may have made it.
Kozuka. Mumei, Ko-Goto (eigene Zuschreibung, offen). Shakudo-nanako, takabori-iroe in kin, Goldrand. Bauern bei der Feldarbeit. Momoyama. Privatsammlung, erworben in Europa.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Kozuka
- Period
- Momoyama
- Material
- Shakudo
- Motif
- Mensch und Legende
