Goto Kenjo (1586-1663), the seventh Shirobei mainline master of the Goto school, was the second son of Goto Tokujo, the fifth mainline master. He was a retainer of Maeda Toshitsune and lived part of each year in Kanazawa, the seat of the Maeda family. He received a stipend of 150 bales of rice (koku) a year for his services. While this gave him a certain level of independence and he did not work in the classic Goto family style, neither was he a follower of the trends and fashions of his day. In the present pair of menuki, the shishi and peony vie for supremacy in the design, a concept normally seen later, in the city-made (machibori) work of the Yokoya school.