Tausend Jahre sind genug
Jurojin and his Deer, Yokoya Somin
A Somin kozuka, cut in katakiri-bori, the line with one steep and one sloping side that the Yokoya school made its own. Jurojin stands in long robes, his beard falling over his chest, a tall cap on his head. He holds a staff of gold, and a scroll hangs from it. His deer stands at his side. On the back a pine spreads its needles along the field, and at the far end a deer stands among rocks.
JAANUS, the dictionary of Japanese art terms, describes Jurojin as a Daoist figure linked to the southern polar star. In Japan he became a god of longevity and one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. He carries a staff with a sutra tied to it and is often accompanied by a white stag said to be 1500 years old.
The surface is pale like silver. It is most likely a soft-metal alloy under a silver coat, though the two are hard to tell apart. The collection places the signature with the second generation of the name. The kozuka is no longer in the collection and “returned home” to Japan in very good hands.
Kozuka. Signiert Somin mit Kao, Yokoya Somin II. Kinko, wohl versilbert, katakiri-bori mit kin-zogan. Jurojin-zu; Rückseite Kiefer und Hirsch. Mittlere Edo-Zeit. Ehemals Privatsammlung, erworben in Japan.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Kozuka
- School
- Yokoya
- Period
- Edo-Zeit › Mittlere Edo-Zeit
- Material
- Gin
- Motif
- Götter und Glücksbringer
