copper tsuba

[Thierry BERNARD]

Some time ago I bought this tsuba built with four copper plates joined with rivets (perhaps you can see them on the seppa dai and all around the mimi , small dot )( i am not sure about the age but i think it's a modern build) could you give me more information about this kind of construction (school, age, ...) and other examples

[John A Stuart]

Hi Thierry, Rich's blog spot has this info on sanmei tsuba. I think even if there are two internal plates making four total it is still termed sanmei. Yonmei etc. would be redundant. Here's the link

 

http://tosogu.blogspot.com/2007/06/byou ... rivet.html\\

 

John

[Rich T]

my subject area but yes, the small pins are 鋲 (Byou) or rivets. I admit I have not seem them this small before, but then again, I think a lot of the time, we do not see them at all.

 

I am at work now, but there is something that reminds me of later Akao Yoshitsugu work. The colour particulary but also the design. I am just not sure if they worked in sanmei, or multiple layer construction. Ed Marshall used to have a Yoshitsugu on his website. Maybe I am thinking of this.

 

There is also something quite Yasuchika esq about it also. I went looking for Sentoku references on the web but work got to me again.

 

http://yakiba.com/welcome.htm

 

There is an image of it on the main page.

 

Rich

[Thierry BERNARD]

In fact, the color of copper is more red in the natural light,

[Ford Hallam]

hello Thierry,

 

I think your suggestion that this is a modern piece is spot on. As Rich has shown, one does occasionally come accross tsuba which are made up of plates riveted together, they do tend to be somewhat earlier pieces though. Tachi tsuba ( not the shitogi type ) are frequently assemblies of loose plates but occasionally they are also riveted together.

 

As for the design, I'd suggest that this is a re-working of an original by Goto Ichijo, circa 1835. I've attached an image to compare. It's a single plate of shibuichi, pierced and carved.

 

regards, Ford

[Rich T]

I knew I had seen that somewhere before.

 

Rich

[Ford Hallam]

Cheers Rich, yes, it's a reasonably well illustrated piece even though it's not typical of his work at all.

[Guest reinhard]

Hi Thierry,

Your Tsuba is in fact a modern copy of a famous design. The example by Goto Ichijo shown by Ford comes quite close to it. I would like to show you one, which is probably the original one, from which this copy was inspired. It is signed "Kishotei MITSUHIRO" and Kao. MITSUHIRO specialized in the use of patinated brass and copper like his father MITSUOKI, founder of the Otsuki-school. Compared with your example, you will notice the more subtle finish and the well-defined and clean-cut seppa-dai.

reinhard

[Ford Hallam]

I reckon that's "atari" for Reinhard . Nice to see the comparison between the work of a master and that of a modern hobbyist. I think it allows us to appreciate all the more the achievements of the past.

 

btw, Reinhard, Mitsuoki Otsuki is generally regarded as the 4th hereditary master of the school. There is still some uncertainty as to the identity of the founder but Mitsushige ( Otsuki-Korin) was signing pieces in the first quarter of the 18th cent. He died in 1742. Robinson cites him as the founder but there may have been lesser know artists working in Owari province who preceeded even him. Many of the later artists worked in Kyoto

 

Mitsuoki Otsuki is without a doubt the pre-emminent genius of the school though. He abandoned the reliance of the Kano school of painting, which had been the inspiration for the school previously, and took his own inspiration from the work of the painter Ganku. Ganku worked in a very new and vigourous style which seemed to suit Mitsuoki's temperament. In fact it appears the two were good friends.

It is known that Mitsuoki was very fond of sake so I like to imagine these two artistic greats enjoying a few tokkuri together while discussing their art. Oh, To have been a fly on the wall.....

[Thierry BERNARD]

Thank you all for your comments :D :D :D

[docliss]

Interestingly, a very similar design appears on p. 193 of Watson's translation of Nihon To Koza, Vol. VI Part 1, and is attributed simply to 'Akasaka'. This may be even earlier than the mid-C19 of Goto Ichijo or the earlier C19 of Otsuki Mitsuhiro.

 

Regards, John L.

[Pete Klein]

Doctor -- I found two examples in the Sano Museum Akasaka text with similar technique -- using the horizontal sukashi to form clouds accenting the theme. They were attributed to the later Tadatoki -- fifth and seventh. This would place them late eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. That is of course when the school had basically melded with others to a more homogeneous style.

[Thierry BERNARD]

Thanks you all for the information.

 

Regards