Set of Sword Fittings (Mitokoromono) with Two Additional Knife Handles (Kozuka) and a Pair of Grip Ornaments (Menuki) 17th century Inscribed by Got? Renj? (Mitsutomo) Japanese The Got? School of sword-fittings makers was founded in the fifteenth century by Got? Y?j?, who is said to have been patronized by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435–1490). The work of the Got? masters is characterized by painterly designs carved in high relief on a ground of shakud? (an alloy of copper and gold chemically treated to turn a rich blue-black), finished in nanako (tiny circles punched regularly over the su

Set of Sword Fittings (Mitokoromono) with Two Additional Knife Handles (Kozuka) and a Pair of Grip Ornaments (Menuki) 17th century Inscribed by Got? Renj? (Mitsutomo) Japanese The Got? School of sword-fittings makers was founded in the fifteenth century by Got? Y?j?, who is said to have been patronized by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435–1490). The work of the Got? masters is characterized by painterly designs carved in high relief on a ground of shakud? (an alloy of copper and gold chemically treated to turn a rich blue-black), finished in nanako (tiny circles punched regularly over the surface to give it a granular appearance) with colorful accents in gold and silver. The succeeding generations of Got? masters continued to work in these soft metals and concentrated on the smaller sword fittings, such as kozuka (the handle of the small utility knife fitted into a slot on the back of a sword scabbard), k?gai (a skewer-like hairdressing tool carried in the front of the scabbard), and menuki (a pair of grip ornaments secured by the handle wrappings). The production of the stouter sword guards, or tsuba, was left to other masters. While earlier generations had not signed their work, the Got? masters in about 1600 began to authenticate the work of their predecessors; the attributions usually were engraved on the backs of the pieces themselves. These attributions bear testimony to the keen interest in early sword fittings as status symbols for high-ranking collection of Got? sword fittings exhibited here was assembled by Count Mito Tokugawa in the nineteenth century. Each of the first fifteen generations of masters of the main Got? school is represented by a mitokoromono, a set of matching fittings consisting of a kozuka, a k?gai, and two menuki. Two additional sets of kozuka and one set of menuki also are exhibited for each generation. This display is the most complete representation of the famous Got? school of sword-fittings sword fittin

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