A Nara Shôki Fuchi-Kashira (鍾馗隠鬼図縁頭)

The Nara school stands apart in the history of Japanese metalwork – a lineage of Edo-period craftsmen working in brass and shakudô with a sculptural ambition rarely matched by their contemporaries. This fuchi-kashira is a superb example of that tradition, attributed by the NTHK-NPO to Tsuchiya Yasuari, one of the school’s most distinguished masters. The brass ground has been worked to a remarkable stone-like surface texture, a hallmark of Nara school technique, against which the figures emerge in bold high relief with inlaid colour accents.

The subject is Shôki, the Demon Queller – a figure of enormous popularity in Edo-period Japan. A Tang-era physician who passed the imperial examinations first among all applicants yet was rejected at court for his ugly appearance, Shôki died in shame. The emperor, struck with remorse, had him buried in imperial green robes, and Shôki’s spirit vowed eternal protection against demons of illness and evil. On this fuchi-kashira, the *kashira* shows Shôki in commanding form amid swirling clouds, while the *fuchi* presents a scene of frantic, scrambling demons desperate to evade his gaze. The expressions are extraordinary – each demon an individual character, rendered with a vitality that speaks to a carver working at the height of his powers.

The piece carries both an NBTHK Hozon certificate and an NTHK-NPO Kanteisho, the latter providing the specific attribution to Tsuchiya Yasuari of the Nara school. It shares Taoist iconographic origins and the same brass-with-stone-finish material language as the ujtu116 Ryoka Tieguai tsuba, also offered by Unique Japan – collectors wishing to acquire both as a complementary set will be given preference.