OGAWA Tomoe

Ogawa Tomoe was originally from Niigata Prefecture. He lived and worked in Tokyo’s Shibuya district and specialized in the Hirata school of hammered metal (tankin). His students were Sugawara Etsuo (art name Tomoo) and Uchida Toshiro. Although Ogawa did not become an official member of the Nitten, he exhibited 15 times, with the last entry being in 1951, at the 12th Nitten. He won the tokusen (grand prize) at the 5th Nitten in 1949.  The kirihame technique involves cutting a base material to match the shape of the inlay metal (mon-gane, or mon-kin), inserting the inlay into the cut-out sections, then securing it from the reverse side using silver solder. Unlike conventional surface inlay, which decorates only the exterior, kirihame penetrates the base material, allowing the design to be visible on both sides. Shibuichi (meaning ‘one quarter’) is an alloy consisting of one part silver to three parts copper.