藻に白魚図小柄 Knife Handle (Kozuka)

Fittings maker 嵐山常行画 Ranzan Tsuneyuki Japanese

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 380

This knife handle (kozuka) made by Ranzan Tsuneyuki (嵐山常行) depicts an icefish amid water plants, imagery associated with early spring in Japan. Like another kozuka in The Met's collection (acc. no. 29.100.1216), this work is featured in the artist’s sketchbook titled Album of Designs for Metal Carving (acc. no. 36.120.699). It is inscribed on the reverse with different but homophonous characters for the name “Tsuneyuki” (恒之), and with another art name, Shōryūsai (昇龍斎). Works signed this way have been attributed to a different artist in the past. However, the sketchbook and other works by Tsuneyuki in the Museum’s collection allow us to ascertain that they are all by the hand of a single artist who changed the spelling of his name and used different artist names over the course of his career.

藻に白魚図小柄 Knife Handle (<i>Kozuka</i>), 嵐山常行画 Ranzan Tsuneyuki (Japanese, active mid-19th century), Copper-gold alloy (<i>shakudō</i>), silver, gold, copper, Japanese

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Obverse

藻に白魚図小柄 Knife Handle (<i>Kozuka</i>), 嵐山常行画 Ranzan Tsuneyuki (Japanese, active mid-19th century), Copper-gold alloy (<i>shakudō</i>), silver, gold, copper, Japanese
藻に白魚図小柄 Knife Handle (<i>Kozuka</i>), 嵐山常行画 Ranzan Tsuneyuki (Japanese, active mid-19th century), Copper-gold alloy (<i>shakudō</i>), silver, gold, copper, Japanese

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