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Lot Essay
Yokoya Soyo (d. 1690 aged 70) is credited with the founding of the machibori ('independent carvers') movement as opposed to the established Goto school ('House Carvers'), and with the introduction of the katakiri-bori (oblique chisel work) technique of varying the width, depth, and angle of the chisel in simulation of brush strokes in ink painting.
He first worked under Goto Mitsutomi in Kyoto, sometime using the names Moritsugu, Morinobu, and Tomochika. During the Kan'ei era (1622 - 1644) he went to Edo to become engaged as the official metalworker to the Tokugawa government. His adopted son Somin and the second of a number of generations of Soyo became the mainstay of the Yokoya school, and their pupils established the main machibori schools such as the Yanagawa, Ishiguro, Omori etc.
He first worked under Goto Mitsutomi in Kyoto, sometime using the names Moritsugu, Morinobu, and Tomochika. During the Kan'ei era (1622 - 1644) he went to Edo to become engaged as the official metalworker to the Tokugawa government. His adopted son Somin and the second of a number of generations of Soyo became the mainstay of the Yokoya school, and their pupils established the main machibori schools such as the Yanagawa, Ishiguro, Omori etc.