Jōi (1701-1781) Iron tsuba, mokkō-gata, with image of Shoki the demon queller on the front, and demon on the back. Low relief carving with gold and silver inlay. Jōi studied under one of the greatest metalsmiths of the Edo era, Nara Toshinaga, and is regarded as an exceptional smith.
The artist Jōi (乗意), real name Nara Tashichi (奈良太七), later Sugiura Sen’emon (杉浦仙右衛門), was born in Genroku 14 (元禄, 1701) as son of a retainer of the Toda-Matsudaira family (戸田松平) in Mino province. Having arrived in Edo in the early years of the Kyōhō era (享保, 1716-1736), Jōi studied with the Nara School master Toshinaga (寿永). He signed with the name Nagaharu (永春) and the art names Issandō (一蝅堂) and Jōi (乗意) and died in Hōreki eleven (宝暦, 1761).
Ex. The Duncan Beresford Jones Collection.
Mei/signature:
乗意 Jōi
School/province: Nara
Period/age: Edo (1701-1781)
Measures: 8.60 cm x 8.00 cm x 0.40 cm
Certificate: No
Included: NO kiri box included
References to similar style Joi tsuba:
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/11785/tsuba-with-design-of-shoki-and-oni?ctx=45569d6e-1dfb-4a62-b659-0d7d7bb8016d&idx=875wdwd
Zacke:
https://www.zacke.at/auction/lot/621-sugiura-joi-an-iron-tsuba-depicting-kanzan-and-jittoku/?lot=55565
SHŌKI 鍾馗 – THE DEMON QUELLER
Shōki 鍾馗 is a deity from China’s Taoist pantheon who was depicted often in Edo-period (1615-1868) Japanese sculptures and paintings, but one who is today largely neglected. Legends about Shōki reportedly first appear in Tang-era (618-907) Chinese documents. The deity reached Japan by at least the late Heian Period (794 to 1185), for the oldest extant image of Shōki in Japan is a scroll at the Nara National Museum dated to the reign of Emperor Goshirakawa 後白河天皇 (1127-1192). Numerous legends surround Shōki in Japan and the West.
Shoki (Chinese, Zhong Kui), a great exorcist, was a popular deity in China from the middle of the Tang dynasty (618-906), and was known in Japan from the Kamakura period. He is said to have appeared in a dream to the ailing Chinese emperor Xuanzong (713-756), to whom he explained that he was a scholar who had committed suicide a century earlier for failing the imperial examinations, but out of gratitude for an honorable burial granted by an earlier emperor, he had vowed to rid the world of mischievous demons. The emperor, who recovered immediately from his illness, ordered a court painter to paint Zhong Kui just as he appeared in the dream. In Edo period Japan, images of Shoki were hung in homes for the Boys’ Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month; some were painted red as talismans against smallpox. In Kuniyoshi’s striking image, Shoki, who grasps his sword as a small demon flees behind him, is depicted in a dynamic graphic style that resembles the brushwork of ink painting.
