Bishū 美洲 (Saitō Katsutoshi 齋藤勝利), b. 1943. Started learning to carve from his father when he was seventeen. Skillful carver, very imaginative and innovative, most of his netsuke bordering on the abstract. During the first quarter of the 20th century, his grandfather founded a production group whose work was signed Baisho or Baishodo. Bishu’s father, who once employed more than forty carvers, carried on the group.