Leaderboard

Hi all, I would like to share three tsuba that recently joined my collection: an Umetada tsuba with karakusa design (perhaps Momoyama?), a Kaga piece, and a Momoyama Heianjo. Each has a different taste and gives a slightly different feeling. Any thoughts or observations are very welcome.

Okay Okam - - where do you do your shopping? I love that second guard.

I came on to say the exact same thing. The observation and design elements work so beautifully together. Reminds me of the motif on the Kokuho Norishige wakizashi tsuba in Ian's possession.

The second one (willows) is spectacular!

於江府雲州高橋信秀作 - Oite efu Unshu Takahashi Nobuhide Saku 文久三年二月吉日 - Bunkyu sannen nigatsu kichijitsu

The first shishi tsuba that I have is a Shakudo one signed Masanaga. The tsuba depicts two shishi in shishiaibori and engraved in katakiri on the reverse with a windblown peony. Shishi are mythical guardian lions in both China and Japan and the peony is regarded as the king of flowers and in Japan symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune. The design of shishi and peony is often augmented by the addition of a butterfly. This is because, according to legend, the shish has a weakness in that a bug lives inside it, but if it sleeps under a peony the morning dew is absorbed by the shishi and the bug is eliminated as a larva, which metamorphoses into a butterfly. The tsuba is signed Masanaga, with a kao and was catalogued as Haynes Index no. H 04250, which identifies the artist as Chosuke Masanaga (d. ca 1700), who was a student of Nara Toshinaga (Markus Sesko) or Ito Masatsugu (Haynes). However, there were two generations of Masanaga in the Nara School and both used the same kanji for their signatures. The first generation, Seiroku, was a student of Toshinaga (either the 3rd generation master of the Nara School or a student of the same name). His (adopted?) son was Gihachi Masachika, who signed Masanaga for a while after his father’s death and was from the Kawakatsu family and a nephew of Sugiura Joi. The Nara tsuba artist Gohachi Masachika may have been an alternative name used by either of the other two Masanaga. Consequently, there is some uncertainty as to the identity of the artist who made this tsuba. Height: 7.6 cm. Width: 7.4 cm. Thickness (rim): 0.4 cm. Weight: 216 g Provenance: Edward Wrangham Collection, Part I, 9 November 2010, Lot 37, bought from the Roland Hartman Collection of Japanese Metalwork (Christies, 30 June 1976, Lot 130) The second shishi tsuba is a large copper one made in the 20th century by Yanagawa Morihira (1899-1971) and was made as a work of art, rather than as a practical object to be mounted on a sword. The shape of the tsuba may be best described as sumi-iri-kakagata (lit: notched in square). The front (omote) of the tsuba shows both a shishi and peonies, whereas the reverse (ura) only shows the shishi. Interestingly, the shishi on the omote has a silver body and a golden mane and tail, whereas the combination of silver and gold is reversed on the ura. The faces on both animals are copper. Shishi are often represented as playful creatures, but these two are muscular with a fearsome pose and the silver shishi has a head which looks rather like Hannya, the Japanese female demon. The engraved peonies on the omote are coloured with silver and gold gilding and the petals are in a darker shade of silver. The outlines are defined in katakiribori (half cut carving) and kebori (hair carving) and, particularly the silver, darkened to add extra tonality to the design. The nakago ana has four 32(?)-petalled chrysanthemum punch marks on each side, purely for decoration and the tsuba is signed on the lower right face of the ura Morihira (守平). There is also a single kozuka hitsu ana, filled with a gilt cat scratched plug. Shishi are mythical guardian lions in both China and Japan and it is also the name given to a group of political activists (Ishin Shishi 維新志士) in the late Edo period who opposed the westernisation of Japan. The peony is regarded as the king of flowers and in Japan symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune. I think that it is likely that this tsuba was made in the 1930’s when Japanese militarism was at its peak. I expect that the intention of the artist was to represent the shishi as fearsome creatures prepared to protect Japan in its time of conflict. However, in my view, the artist failed in this respect and they appear rather camp. I purchased this tsuba in memory of my nephew, who died young (52) at about the same time this came up for sale. He was a rather over the top extrovert character and I thought it would be a suitable memorial for him. Height: 8.75 cm. Width: 8.4 cm. Thickness (rim): 0.7 cm; Nakago: 0.4 cm. Weight: 254 g Provenance: Bonhams (Lot 48, 13 May 2021). Best wishes, John

Having a particular fondness for brass-inlaid tsuba, I eventually added several pieces from the Washida school of fittings makers to my collection. This sparked my interest in learning more about the school and its production. Over time I gathered a fair amount of information and eventually decided to compile it into a single document, which you can find in the download section of the board: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/files/file/210-the-shōnai-washida-school/ I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. As I mentioned, given my particular weakness for brass inlay, the document is somewhat biased toward the work of Washida Mitsunaka! Just as an example of the Washida production here are the pieces from this school (or supposed to be from this school) in my collection: NBTHK Hozon to Washida. Dimensions 85.4 mm x 85.3 mm, thickness 3.9 at seppa dai, 4.2 at mimi. NBTHK Hozon to Washida. Dimensions 85.3mm x 79.2 mm, thickness 3.6 at seppa dai, 4.0 at mimi. Identical to tsuba attributed by NBTHK to Washida. Dimensions 87.2 mm x 82.2 mm, thickness 3.7 at seppa dai, 4.0 at mimi. Signed in kinzogan mei Kyozan Mitsunaka with Kao. Dimensions 87.2 mm x 77.6 mm, thickness 2.6 at seppa dai, 4.2 at mimi. Dimensions 83.5 mm x 78.6 mm, thickness 3.0 at seppa dai, 4.1 at mimi. Dimensions: 96.9 mm x 13.9 mm, thickness 4.7 mm. REgards Luca