Die Koto-Spielerin
A Lady at the Koto, by Goto Injo
This kozuka by Goto Injo is a long, narrow field of shakudo, divided like a house. At the left stand two screens with a gold lattice of overlapping circles. Beyond them, under a gold beam, a lady with long black hair sits at a koto, her robe patterned in gold. Two gold tassels hang above her. To the right the room opens onto a field of very fine nanako. At its upper edge hang a crescent moon and a few fine inlaid lines of mist.
Das Objekt
The NTHK paper names the subject kifujin kinso-zu, a noble lady playing the koto. It describes a shakudo ground with nanako, a gold back, the figure in high relief with gold color, and flat inlay. The back is finished with fine lengthwise lines and carries the signature Goto Injo with a kao.
Almost half of the kozuka is left open. The room is crowded with pattern, the night outside is not. The eye moves from the screens to the lady and then out into the dark, where only the moon is.
Goto Injo
The Goto were the hereditary metalworkers of the shogunate. Injo was born in 1621, the third son of Kenjo of the main line, and died in 1689. He founded the Shichiroemon branch of the family, and Yokoya Soyo was among his pupils. These dates follow the Haynes Index.
Die Veröffentlichung
The NTHK published the kozuka in its journal Tōken Kansō, No. 776, in 2024, in the section on pieces from the previous examination. The entry suggests that the scene may draw on palace rooms Injo knew in his youth. That is the journal’s reading, and it is recorded here as such.
Eine Korrektur
An earlier version of this page named the NBTHK and a Hozon grade, and it gave the size. The paper is an NTHK kantei-sho, and sizes are not given on these pages.
The Koto Kozuka
Kozuka. Signiert Goto Injo mit Kao. Shakudo, nanako-ji, takabori, kin-iroe, hira-zogan; Rückseite Gold. Kifujin kinso-zu. Frühe Edo-Zeit. NTHK Kanteisho. Veröffentlicht in Tōken Kansō Nr. 776 (2024). Privatsammlung, erworben in Japan.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Kozuka
- School
- Goto
- Period
- Edo-Zeit › Frühe Edo-Zeit
- Material
- Shakudo
- Motif
- Mensch und Legende
