Henry Wilson

While I respect the member’s opinions who are certain that the signature of my Nobuie is incorrect and that the NTHK (NPO) have got it wrong, I wonder what their opinion is on this composition. I am quite sure that minds will not be changed but I think the comparison is interesting and worth pointing out. The sample I am using is an oshigata, however the quality seems to be quite good. There seems to be a few strokes missing from the 信 part of the mei, there is a < shape that is larger than in other Nobuie mei in the 家　kanji, overall the mei seems to be quite long and the 家　kanji of both tsuba have a striking resemblance.

I found a few more rectangular shaped nakago ana tsuba while going through some books.

Many thanks for the responses. I am glad that the tsuba has been of interest. To be honest, I was expecting the response about the mei but I think the tsuba was worth showing anyway as I believe there is a lot to learn from it, regardless of whether the papers are wrong or not. Having the NBTHK look at it is something I might do in time, however I suspect that Pete and Steve are quite familiar with NBTHK shinsa and from what they say, I feel it might not be worth the bother or the money. I am not familiar with either Ito or Hagihara San. If some one would be so kind as to contact me with more information concerning them, I would be most appreciative. Many thanks again.

Many thanks to all who participated, especially David Stiles who was game enough to write-up his ideas and make an educated guess at the maker. Below are my thoughts on the tsuba. I have done my best with the photographs and hope they are of interest and illustrate the points I am trying to make. The write-up is bit long but I feel such a tsuba and smith deserve the effort. Not surprisingly, this tsuba is signed Nobuie 信家 and has papers from the NTHK (NPO). Here it is in all its glory with lacquer and mother-of-pearl box, silk case and papers. It is a small, iron tsuba, with a nade mokko gata 撫木爪形, sukinokoshi mimi 鋤残耳and a cross section described as sukisage no ita　鋤下げの板. There are carvings of various plants front and back, the easiest to identify is omodaka or shogun grass (sagittaria trifolia) with the characteristic three leaf arrowhead shape. On the front and back there is some foliage in the top left which might be seaweed. The motifs and signature are carved using a technique called giri-bori. Apparently giri means kick (I can’t find it in any dictionary thought) and this style of carving technique does not remove metal but displaces it, using a special shaped chisel. It is the kind of technique commonly used for signing blades. There is some tekkotsu on the plate surface and granular type on the rim, and there are some faint fold lines near the rim, too. The surface of the tsuba is slightly concave on both sides, this effect is known as sukisage no ita 鋤下げの板, and the distribution of the metal from the nakago ana to the mimi is subtle, but very pleasing. The overall finish of the tsuba has a kind of yakite shitate which softens the carving, but the mei is confidently carved, not worn at all, and would appear to have been added after the surface treatment. The rim is quite low when compared to similar ones seen on other “katchushi” style tsuba, and the kozuka ana has a soft, round shape. The kogai ana is plugged with lead which is punched front and back and it has a nade 撫 shape too, just like the outline of the tsuba. Pete Klein commented that the mokko rim bothered him at the intersection of the mokko lobes. Nobuie’s rims and how he manipulate them in the corners or joins of the mokko lobes is said to be a kantei point. Sources says, in particular Kastuya Toshikazu, that Nobuie was very competent at this tricky task however, he also states that his work was not always perfect because Nobuie was only human after all. Below is a picture composition of three Nobuie tsuba. Look carefully at the intersections of the lobes and how the rims taper around the area connecting the lobes. The left tsuba has perfect lobe-rim work, meaning the rim keeps a consistent and pleasing shape and thickness as it turns from lobe to lobe. My tsuba is in the centre, and the right tsuba has some lobe-rim turns (the top right anyway) that have lost their shape and are slightly flat. I think in comparison, my tsuba in the centre is not so bad and there is nothing really to worry about. Brain Robinson mentioned signature type. From my research, Akiyama identified several Nobuie signatures and grouped them into two groups: Gamei 雅銘 (elegant), describing the writing style as gentle, slight and tasteful and found on the work of the 1st generation Nobuie. The other group is Chikara-mei 力銘 (powerful or mighty), and described as strong and bold, and are of the work of the 2nd generation. The variation of the signature styles for each generation with in the Gamei or Chikara-mei groups is believed to represent a change in signature style over the years of each tsuba smith’s career. See examples of these groups in the three tsuba picture composition above. By the way, I think that the Nobuie signature that is similar to the one found on kabuto has been discarded as not being “real” Nobuie tsuba smith work. The signature of my tsuba is very bold and that of the 2nd generation who signed with futoji mei 太字銘 that falls into the Chikara-mei group. This dates it to around the Momoyama period as he is said to have worked the periods Tensho 1573- 1592, Bunroku 1592-1596, Keicho 1596-1615 and most of Genna 1615-1620 in the Kiyosu area of Owari, near present day Nagoya, after which he is said to have moved to Aki Province (modern day Hiroshima Province) around 1619. Compared to accredit mei, the mei on my tsuba looks authentic and verifies the workmanship as being that of the 2nd generation Nobuie. It is wakizashi sized and when small Nobuie are compared with large ones, generally they appear to consist of completely different metals. In my opinion, small Nobuie seem to have a less refined metal, finished with a totally different patina. I have been able to compare in hand this tsuba with two other large Nobuie, one with a Gamei and the other with a Chikara signature, both papered, and I was surprised how similar they felt even though the size, metals and patina were quite different. Here is an oshigata of another Nobuie tsuba and a commentary by Wakayama Homatsu that I feel has relevance. The extract is taken from the translation of “Nobuie Tanshu” by Nakamura Kakudayu and the oshigata is taken from “Nobuie Tanshu” by Nakamura Kakudayu. (Sorry about the picture) “(No. 7) Figures are rarely found as a motif on Nobuie tsuba and most of the kebori depict floral patterns. Therefore such floral designs in combination with the superb iron quality gives an intimate and very warm feeling which gives pleasure to the viewer. The shogun gusa (将軍草 plant of the shogun) shown on this tsuba can be written with the characters 勝軍草 which literally means ‘plant of the winning army’, but anyway both terms refer to the omodaka (沢潟, Alismataceae). The omodaka is a perennial plant growing in watered paddies and swamps, and the name ‘omodaka’ (also written with the characters 面高) comes from the fact that the arrow-shaped leaves of the plant are rising high (高) from the surface (面) of the water. This tsuba measures 7.7 cm in height and 7.8 cm in width.” The link below has examples of the plant used as a family mon: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... r_plantain The tsuba comes in an old lacquer box in excellent condition, which is brown on the outside and red in the inside, and probably dates from the Meiji period or possibly earlier. It is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and has the kanji 壽 (kotobuki) which means happiness and longevity on the lid. It comes in an old silk bag with repeating 壽 embroider on it, that has been recently repaired. It is safe to assume that the box and silk bag are all original to each other and the box was custom made for the tsuba in question. This tsuba apparently came from an “old Bushi family” however the name of which I do not know. All in all this is an excellent tsuba and a lovely, complete package. I was delighted and very fortunate to be able to acquire it, have it papered and present to you all. It will stay in my collection for many years to come and will be published in the 2013 Kokusai Tosogu Kai catalogue. Many thanks for reading.

Thanks for the clarification Brian and Lance. I nearly want into shock. :D It seems the thread has run its course. I will post my thoughts tomorrow.

Many thanks David for sharing your thoughts. I am not sure I can agree with that... If we are thinking the same tsuba. The shape is the only characteristic that is slightly similar

Thank you for the comments. David, if you have time, why not write a brief outline to support your kantei call. I think some members would benefit from this. Many thanks again for the interest shown so far.

Thanks Curran. Maybe some day!

Here is a signed iron tsuba of mine that recently received papers. The dimensions are 6.4 cm x 6.0 cm, 0.4 cm at the rim and 0.25 cm at the nakago ana. Please feel free to comment on it and have a guess at the maker. I will post my thoughts and a copy of the papers in a week or so. Enjoy!

A nice tsuba David. The plate looks good as well as the composition and the condition is excellent too. The man could be a figure standing on a cliff. The way his robes seem to be blowing in the wind suggest this. The reverse side seems to be of a stream. Maybe he is standing on a peak and admiring the view of of a river or a waterfall. Styistically, it reminds of a section typically found in 12th century Chinese paintings. The work of Ma Yuan comes to mind and below is one of his famous works: The man in the painting above is a nobleman with a servant, but as Christian points out, I think your character is a sage, or a mountain dwelling hermit or someone on the path to enlightenment The defining features of the character in your tsuba seems to be the herbs on his back and his smiling face which might be of help identifying him if you look through Legend in Japanese Art by Henri L. Joly http://archive.org/details/legendinjapanese00jolyuoft I wonder if the herbs could in fact be tea leaves? Just some thoughts.

Nice write up Piers. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Mariusz Thanks for the I am flattered. You are indeed right that we can't really tell what kind of koshirae they were mounted on but it is fun to have a wild guess at it. I have never been to Oyamazumi Shrine but I have been told that there are some tsuba like the ubu iron one above with the concentric circles on display on some old tachi koshirae. I have not seen then myself but hope to visit some day to find out for sure. Many thanks for the great thread. Posted from my iPhone.

Assuming the scrolls are accurate, the next question is where are all the tosogu from that era? According to the scrolls, there seems to have been an abundance of metal fittings. Over time many would have been lost, damaged beyond repair and recycled, neglected and left to rust and so on, however there should be some still around. Here are two iron tsuba from my collection which I think could be as a long shot the kind depicted in the scrolls. (Sorry about the blurry pictures). The first is a Ko Tosho tsuba that is perfect round, 7.2cm and 0.2 cm thick and was discussed last year here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13468 In my opinion there is a chance it could be the kind of iron tsuba worn by low ranking individuals on early uchigatana, such as the kebiishi in the Ban Dainagon Scrolls. By the way this tsuba will be in the up-and-coming KTK catalogue alongside the mikatsuki sukashi tsuba once owned by Sasano. The next is hard to categorise and is discussed embedded in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13495&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15 It was apparently found on a tachi, however it has been fitted in a box as an uchigatana tsuba. It is 8.5 cm, perfect round and in my opinion an early example of a tachi tsuba. From the scrolls I have found tsuba mounted on tachi which are very similar. The left hand picture below is of warriors (the ones with shaved heads are probably warrior monks) and they seem to have tsuba on their tachi of a similar style. The right hand picture is of a warrior resting during the attempted Mongol invasion. The tsuba on his tachi is of a similar shape, however there seems to be file marks radiating from the centre and the inner ring is probably a seppa commonly found on tachi. I have a feeling that this tsuba was probably soft metal but stylistically it appears to be of a similar style. As I say these comparisons are a long shot, however don’t let that put you off going through the scrolls and finding paintings of tsuba that are similar to your own tsuba! If you do, please share them with the rest of us.

Below is a link to a discussion on the reliability of such scrolls. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15258

Nice post Mariuszk. Japanese paintings is another interest of mine. The Heiji Tale as well as the Mongol Invasion scrolls http://www.bowdoin.edu/mongol-scrolls/ are war tales style of painting. The origin of this type of painting marked the start of the bakufu government in 1185 when the Minamoto clan gained power. They reflect a shift from an interest in courtly affairs as seen in Heian period paintings, to an interest in the code of the warrior, their equipment and tactics, reflecting the fall of the Fujiwara Heian period class and the rise of the Kamakura period warrior class. These hand scrolls and the ones that you posted are particularly interesting because they consist of styles called onna-e (feminine painting), otoko-e (masculine painting), or a combination of both. Put simply, onna-e is a painting style that depicts the “inner world” representing the reserved nature of the Heian courtiers, and this style is used to express introvert feelings and emotions. The “frames” of these scrolls seem frozen in time, they lack movement or action and attention is paid to hair and costume, with facial features and detail to buildings and rooms as a secondary concern. They usually represent the moment just before or after an emotion-filled encounter and thus have a tension that anticipates what is going to happen or what will be the consequence of what has just happened. Classic Kano school paintings of the Genji Tales are very good examples of the onna-e style. Below is an example and you can see there is a stillness, with only the blinds ruffling in the wind, and the emotional interplay between Niou as he serenades Nakanokimi is very apparent. In onno-e lines of the paintings are usually thin and weak, adding to the finesse. Check out this link for more information on the Tale of Genji. http://www.taleofgenji.org/summary.html On the other hand, otoko-e paintings are action packed and basically are the opposite to onna-e. They usually depict outside, historical events (not always apparently) and the emphasis is on realism which is a contrast to the onna-e were a kind of dreaminess is strived for. A piece of otoko-e painting typically illustrates multiple actions and attention is paid to facial features, clothing, equipment and anything else that adds to the realism. Exaggeration is typically avoided but motion and dynamism is an essential part of the style. Otoko-e are very detailed and viewing such scrolls from right to left, there is a sense of speed and momentum as the story unfolds. The lines of the paintings are thicker and have more curves which adds to the sense of action. Below is an extract from the Shigi San Engi which exemplifies the otoko-e style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigisan-engi In the epic stories such as the Heiji scrolls as posted by Mariuszk, there are usually crowds of people that are running and congregating in arrow-head shaped crowd, with a key figure at the front and this arrangement enhances the sense of motion. The Ban Dainagon scrolls as a whole is a combination of the onno-e and otoko-e style of painting. The fast pace of the political row in the streets of Kyoto is broken up with scenes in the Imperial residence as the Emperor is informed of the trouble, and at Minamoto no Makoto’s residence as he contemplates his possible sentence as the wrongly accused of the burning of the Imperial the gate. Incidentally, the Imperial residence is inaccurately drawn and the police force are very accurately drawn which hints at the artists background. In short, the main purpose of onna-e is to encourage the viewer to savour and linger over the individual frames that make up the whole story. With otoko-e, the point is to excite and push the eye of the viewer across the scroll.

Many thanks everyone for the reply. Just to clarify, the lovely Yagyu tsuba does not belong to me Jean and George have highlighted an interesting possiblity. The oblong nakago ana would allow a blade to be mounted in either uchigatana (mune-side down) or tachi (mune-side up) style without having to rotate the tsuba. The shape of the nakago ana could be indictive of what kind of blade the tsuba has been mounted on. But then again as Mariusz states, would such tsuba that we traditionally associate with uchigatana be mounted on a tachi? Apart from handachi, I can't recall seeing any (which doesn't mean it has never happened). I have seen what were originally tachi tsuba refitted for uchigatana, the inclusion of hitsuana indicate this, but not the other way round. This is an interesting point. My opinion is that it if the fittings were of reasonable quailty, meaning that they where owned by someone with a certain amount of rank / status then the expected rules would be quite strict and they would be expected to be complied to. Of lesser quality on a low ranking individual who was expected to go out and fight, I think the rules would be less strict due to the person's econmics. Hi Richard. Sorry, I don't quite follow.

Thank you both Barry and Richard for your input. I can't remember exactly where I picked this up, but I recall a rectangular nakago ana is indicative of age. I could have dreamt this or made up as I can't find any source that agrees with it.

I wonder if anything can be determined from the shape of the nakago ana. Sometimes I have seen them as a very distinct, oblong shape with no taper. Could this shape be an indication of age, a kantei point or anything else? Below is a Yagyu tsuba to illustrate the shape I mean. Looking forward to hearing any thoughts.

Whilst doing some light reading on the train, I happened across this Heian period box. It puts some meat on the bones of the wheels and waves motif. http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100197/000 ... os=1&num=3

I have done some research on David's kogai's motif on the internet. This is a summary of what I found. I am not an expert in this field (not even slightly knowledgeable), but I am curious about the significance of such Buddhist items, so please pardon and freely point out any errors with the information I have provided. Vajra are known as 金剛杵 kongoshyo in Japanese and the kanji translate as a “mystical weapon”. It is a typical esoteric Buddhist ritual implement and it comes in varies forms, usually three and five spokes, which are sometimes closed like fists at the ends. The shafts are ornamented with various objects, the most common being lotus pedestals but water creatures and the like can also be found. Vajra is a Sanskrit word and in Buddhist literature can translate as "diamond" but it can also mean "thunderbolt," however this definition is usually associated with Hinduism. On David’s kogai there is a single pronged vajra called dokkoshyo/ tokkoshyo 独鈷杵 (tokkoshyo is a Nagoya pronunciation). It seems to represent many different things depending on what source you consult which I find is quite common (and fascinating) when researching Buddhist iconography. I have read the prongs which look like blades where intended to protect the owner as he seeks enlightenment. I have also read it can represent, devotion, bravery, righteousness and in Tibet it represents the male principle which is strength. Below is a good link that discuss it in a Japanese context: http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/dictio/data/kinkou/mikkyo.htm Hope this helps and is of interest.

The design seems to be of two butterflies hinting at the Taira clan. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_clan The inserts between the insects feelers are probably cosmetic and if the tsuba is real and is what it appears to be, the sheen of shakudo would have made a nice contrast to the patina of the iron. I have seen such cosmetic inserts quite often, the most memorable was on a Yamakichibei kurama tsuba where a few random spaces between spokes were filled with shakudo.

It also says that if it did not have enamel it would look like Nanban

The tsuba reminds me of this Zen painting by Ryozen from the mid fourteenth century. The birds are clearly different but the compostion is similar including the water ripples which are not clearly seen in the picture of painting I have attached (sorry about the small size, but it is the only image on the net I can find). The simplicity and tranquility in the painting and tsuba could represent meditation (if the painting did indeed inspire the tsuba) as Ryozen was a Zen monk painter. The way the birds are depicted seems to be influenced by Chinese animal paintings.

Nice David. Very nice indeed. I am a sucker for Buddhist related items. Congratulations.

Here are my thoughts. Good points The motif of plum blossom cuttings, the flower arranging scissors and the bamboo vase for the cuttings, hint at Hideyoshi and his interest in tea ceremony and the days of the Momoyama period. There is a reference that I enjoyed reading a long time ago that explains this composition but I can't find it at the moment to share. The iron looks good as does the hammer work, but that could be the monitor of this computer. Bad points The main points that would concern me is that the signature does not look like it was carved, but looks cast. The composition of the whole tsuba is not organized very well, it is cluttered, the vase is oversized, the inclusion of the scissors is sloppy and seems like an after thought. The nakago ana looks odd but that could be the gold sekigana. To me it seems that it has been made to look like a tsuba by someone who doesn't make tsuba. I would say a real Japanese Meiji period tourist piece.