Ford Hallam

It's been a hectic week but I haven't forgotten....this was something I read last night that seemed temporarily appropriate though. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

Sorry Gents, I'm not ignoring this discussion. I will order my thoughts and see what input I might be able to offer that might be useful in helping to better discuss this slippery aspect of tosogu.

I wont even try to start a discussion about iron quality and any imagined connection with patina and surface appearance ....

So Yagyu Renusai pounded tsuba and Yagyu tsuba were scraped to finish them according ti the famous text, I forget the proper name.... If overly hard/brittle metal is 'pounded' it's likely going to break. And only a fool would scrape hardened steel. So I would assume that the tsuba Renusai was supposedly pounding were unhardened....or the whole story is just uninformed folklore. Scraping was, and still is in classical studios, a very efficient technique for finishing metal. But, again....somewhat pointless to even attempt on hardened steel.

Morning Paul looking at the specs on your camera I see you can shoot in aperture priority. This means you can select the effective depth of field and thereby the sharpness. More shallow DoF equals a more crisp image....but as its a smaller hole for the light to travel through it needs a longer exposure to gather that light. So a tripod set up is vital (with shutter release cable or remote, imo, to ensure stability. Not sure if your camera allows for an enlarged image preview for manual focussing but that's essential I feel in achieving the best results too. And naturally the lens arrangement is going ultimately to be your final limit. Standard kit lenses are never going to give you the really crisp images you may aspire to, and macro attachments are always a compromise, a dedicated macro lens will transform your view. I suppose what I'm saying is that there is a limit to what you can expect from a particular bunch of gear, so don't judge your results too harshly. If you are thinking about upgrading your kit I'd suggest something like the Sigma 105mm macro for Nikon. (I use canon but swear by my Sigma art lenses for almost all my filming nowadays.) It's a little bit of an investment, (about the price of a very mediocre set of f/k but great value for an excellent macro lens) and it functions well for portraits and landscapes so it's fairly versatile. For fitting's detail shots I tend to use an aperture of between 9 to 11 and mostly let the camera decide on the speed of the shutter unless I'm after a particularly moody or arty image, then I get creative with the shutter speed myself. Edit to add: Looking at the old Nikon D40, a very decent camera by all accounts, I see it has an enlarged preview image screen which is very helpful in terms of getting those super sharp images. They're available for about £100.

What camera and lens are you using Paul? Specifically, are you able to select aperture size? and I assume a tripod and shutter release?

Moriyama San, it's what I was told by my teacher, and I'm sure you know how Sensei sometimes just make things up so who knows. I've worked on quite a few fancifully shaped Meiji period Hyotan sake tokkuri that were artificially formed, one actually had a knot formed in the neck. There was also the fashion of growing the gourds in a box that had carved panels inside so that the impression was pressed into the gourd's flesh.

not stylised, these are in fact quite realistic. Goudrs were grown and when at a good size a poisonous seed was inserted in the neck of the gourd to 'kill it'. It became limp and 'deflated' as it began to wither, at which point it was manipulated into fanciful shapes, the poison removed and it allowed to recover. There are many such dried sake gourds from the Edo period in existence that were made this way.

15$ !!!! no no no, don't ever do that again, or if you really must, to satisfy some unmentionable lust, don't drag the genteel members of this august forum into a tawdry discussion of the imaginary merits of your shameful weaknesses. Six Hail Marys, half a dozen 'Our Fathers' and a severe spanking would be my proscription.

There was a Washida tsuba, non ferrous, of butterflies, really complex multicoloured hira-zogan, on display in the now closed Tosogu Museum in Tokyo. It was actually unfinished, patinated but lacking any engraved final detailing. Apparently, he died before he could finish it and his son vowed to strive to reach his fathers skill to complete it but it seems he didnt feel up to it. I cant remember which generation it was though. I don't have the catalogue to hand but if someone does have it's illustrated in there. This one was sold by Ginza Seiyudo And a signed one in the MFA, thankfully not over cleaned.

It seems to me that there's a 'lip' around the crane. This might simply be the outline of a cavity into which the decoration is set or glued but it might also be that the decoration is partially inlaid. More worryingly though is the likelihood that the plate is a cast copy. That nakago-ana is simply not right at all. There's no evidence of it ever having been mounted, the mune end seems still clogged up and unfinished after casting, and the ha end is completely unconvincing in its roundness.

Today we call that technique a 'jelly roll'. It probably had a more poetic name in Edo Japan

I'd suggest a Shoami workshop. I think it's very clever and well made. A very interesting piece.

Do itashimashite

Mark, yes, I have actually made aikuchi fittings before. I quite enjoy the technical aspect of getting it all to fit snug and cleanly. With regard to Katsuhira and his style I'd offer that his earlier work is pretty similar to classic Mito design, and I'd even say his workmanship is a little generic at times, but as he matures he really does push the boundaries of his own expression, both in terms of his actual designs and workmanship. These very sculptural fuchi, and particularly the kashira, are a good case in point. Personally I don't have an issue with any of the examples linked to except perhaps the silver pheasant ensemble. It's worth bearing in mind that Katsuhira, in the last decade or so of his life, was in fact working during that very turbulent period of transition and that his output did evolve rapidly at that time to meet the new tastes he must have been very aware of. I've worked on obidome, boxes and vases by him. His son, who followed him, simply couldn't match the old man's standards in any respect.

nice Hagia Katsuhira fuchi too. In the Walter's Art Museum if memory serves.

Ai kuchi actually means 'the meeting of the mouth' or two mouths.

It's quite a clean, some might say flat, piece, but the design is fresh and crisp. I'd say it's a later work. It seems to me the Akasaka group were very much influenced by fabric design ideas, particularly later work, pinning down a particular generation is probably impossible They were very popular with warriors on duty in Edo visiting from the provinces and bringing them back home was apparently something that was common. I've read a few old diary entries that describe this fashion. As a group, imo, the Akasaka were the best at sukashi design. One point I inevitably expect in an Akasaka work is the considered shape and arrangement of the negative spaces, everything has room to be properly defined and all the 'white' shapes are each interesting in their own right. That's good design!

I'd be inclined to agree with John and suggest Akasaka.

Hi Krystian It may take me a couple of days to get a chance but I'll try and detail the various 'oddities' that make the faces appear 'wrong'. I need to figure out how to draw on images

Thanks Ken, I hope it provides something to chew over and offers some further insights beyond the surface, so to speak.

Some further excellent study samples, these by Yanagawa Naomasa, a senior Yokoya student and master in his own right. A thoughtful Christmas present....if you anyone was wondering what I'd like to see under my tree. On Darcy Brockbank's site, with superb images in HD. And as an example of a classically carved and formed botan flower this on by Naomasa (borrowed from Darcy's site, hope that's ok) would be hard to beat. You can just discern, perhaps in only one spot, that he also used a rounded punch to create some wrinkles in the petal edges but it's by no means all that obvious and there is so much other modelling and subtle shaping that the overall effect of 'floweriness' is superb. It's also worth remembering that this type of flower carving is very stylised. There's a good amount of abstraction in the actual flower shape, it's not meant to be a super realistic flower, more of a idealised version design motif. This is because at this tiny size a perfectly realistic flower would loose it's impact and be too fussy. So instead this style provides a simplified version that captures the overall impression of the peony/botan flower. Towards the end of the Edo period we then see artists like Kano Natsuo doing peony in a bigger scale so that then they can in fact start to create more naturalistic versions of the flower. This artistic evolution is worth exploring because the issue of image scale is often a very good indicator of period.

Krystian I have to say that there are quite a few things about this work that bother me. Almost everything has something about it that feels not quite 'right'. The tsuba's texture is not very professional, as though it was done by someone for the first time. It's uneven in the way the marks are lined and there is a clear difference in depth of marks too, as well as areas where the texture is less concentrated. These all issues beginners struggle with. The nakago ana on the tsuba is very 'stiff', marked out and shaped almost like a machine job. This is not usual in Edo work but is a feature of modern Japanese work where it feels to me that the makers are not confidant in their design sense. The peony flowers are shaped in a way not typically seen on classical work. By this I mean the ripples on the petals. In traditional work these are properly carved in the silver but here the petals were made very simply as one scooped shape and then the edges punched with a rounded punch to push the ripples in to create the wrinkled effect. You can see the individual indents. This isn't the classical approach at all, it feels like a sort of cheat and hurried way of doing things. The leaves of the peony flowers are also odd, they're very elongated to the stage where they no longer look like peony leaves. This sort of 'mistake' is suspicious because traditional craftsmen copied designs very expertly. It's just the way they were trained. This feels like the sort of freestyle work we'd expect from someone who's working it all out from scratch. The shishi on all the fittings are reasonably carefully done but yet again they don't feel natural, and there are some very obvious oddities about details and actual shapes. Some of the faces are really 'curious'. Someone tried really hard to emulate the style but didn't quite hit the mark. I'll be honest, for me there are simply too many awkward issues to allow me to consider this work as legitimate Edo work. As more modern amateur work we must judge it by very different criteria. I would agree that the mei all seem to be by the same hand. And I wouldn't call this work fake. I've attached a couple of images of genuine Yokoya (Soyo II) work for you to study what the target was and to see for yourself how the copies don't quite 'get it'.

If I may, I have a few observations to offer on the tsuba. The texture on the plate is called 'chiri-men' or crepe silk texture. It's very much associated with the work of Murakami Jochiku. However the generic look of the shishi and peony is not Jochiku's style at all. The mimi isn't really all that unusual, it's a fairly typical filed 'rope' pattern. It was, when new, gilded and would have presented a very tidy edge. I don't believe a fukurin was used or needed. The plate may well be san-mai, with a copper core, or that brown patina may simply be worn shakudo that hasn't recoloured properly. It's hard to be certain based on the image provided but the fact that the kozuka ana is gilded (to hide layers perhaps?) and the nakago ana looks like it may also be lined, in this case with shakudo, could all point to a sandwich construction, to save on material costs. The gilding on the shishi is also thin and a little worn, further evidence of cost cutting.

No problem Jeremy, for that money you can get a reasonable late Edo piece that'd be perfectly usable. Grey has a few decent examples in your price range.