Steve Waszak

Ford, Good stuff, once again. I have a question for you, even though it is purely speculative: what do you imagine has led scholars (or "scholars") of the past to settle on the Muromachi or Momoyama periods as the time of production for Onin and Heianjo guards? Of course, I realize that the same forces have likely been at work here as are responsible for the dating of all sorts of other unsigned early-ish tsuba, but I'm wondering if there might be something specific about Onin and/or Heianjo works that could/would have had these scholars zeroing in on a Muromachi or Momoyama dating. I guess what I'm thinking of specifically here is whether something having to do with inlay technique, inlay style, brass availability, etc... may have led to such dating. Or, conversely, was there something they saw in the plates, rather than the inlay, that directed them to their conclusions? Again, I know all of this is speculative, but such speculation has implications for many other types of tsuba beside Onin and Heianjo, and so is worth dabbling in, methinks.

Fascinating stuff, Ford. Most intrigued to know more...

I am thinking more and more that much/most (or even all?) of the brass inlay we see on Heianjo and even Onin tsuba is added later (latest Momoyama to early Edo periods) to existing steel plates produced perhaps decades earlier by the Saotome, tosho, and other groups of iron workers. The aesthetics of Heianjo guards, in particular, strike me more as in keeping with Momoyama sensibilities than those of Muromachi.

Book-length projects are like that: they take on a life of their own, and start to push the author around... Congrats on finishing! Now we all get to benefit!

Really looking forward to the book coming out, Ford.

Just one sparkling gem after another. Highly recommended reading.

Hi Luca, Heianjo guards aren't quite my area of focus, but I would date your tsuba to Azuch--Momoyama, not to Edo. As Henry notes, the style of hitsu-ana suggests a pre-Edo dating, and I see nothing else in the tsuba that points to an Edo Period time of production rather than pre-Edo. Even without the reference photos you supply here, the details you observe in the piece suggests (to me) an Azuchi-Momoyama tsuba. But with those photos to add to the consideration, I am scratching my head trying to understand why an attribution of Edo was given to this guard. Cheers, Steve

Ah, I see. Thanks, Curran, both for the good kantei test and the explanation here. I suppose it would help me to have the Hayashi book. Higo (and even more, Akasaka) are a bit outside my area of focus, but still, this was a great learning exercise. Thanks for posting. Cheers, Steve

Second set: first one is Hayashi Matashichi; the second, Hayashi Shigemitsu. ?

Oh Guido, Guido, Guido... Of course this is about taste. That's all it can be about. All the silly, sarcastic references you make to "real" samurai and "real" men, even if we were to take them at face value, would still boil down to conceptions of taste (i.e. aesthetic expressions "suitable" for such categories of individual). So it is, most assuredly, about taste. And your overstatement about the "sophisticated collector" just makes your post bombastic. Likewise your flaccid attempt to denigrate the appreciation of old iron via that inane reference to "slips of the hammer" and the Emperor's new clothes. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and produce an example here of an early iron tsuba that you KNOW presents with "slips of the hammer" rather than any conscious effort to produce an effect associated with specific aesthetic principles. SHOW us a no-doubter EXAMPLE of a celebrated tsuba which is really an "Emperor's New Clothes" early iron sword guard. Be sure to turn off your shakuhachi music when you do it so your head will be clear, and you'll be free of any "romantic" demons that seek to cloud your judgment. Sheesh. What I'm tired of is smug individuals who denigrate early iron collectors' affinity for the aesthetic features present in those works and which features can be cogently argued to have been intended (*Note: just because YOU don't understand or like the argument doesn't mean it's not cogent). And just because you don't/can't understand elusive aesthetic principles does not mean others can't or don't, or that they don't have positive substance and meaning . Does your inability to see a clear curving of the earth at the horizon make you a flat-earther, too? I mean, why wouldn't it? You can't see a curve, so it can't be there. Your comment about "collecting art, and not romantic notions" is, of course, an elitist one. Surely you see this. And carried within this attitude is one of superiority over others. And with this comes the denigration---sorry, belittling---of others' ideas, perceptions, sensibilities. Surely you see this, too. So you must be deliberately contradicting yourself. An interesting approach; not really working very well for you, though. By the way, how did you get involved with collecting "samurai art," anyway? What was the psychology involved? Since we know there was no romance connected with it, what, exactly, constituted the appeal? To collect this kind of object is a remarkably odd choice for someone who won't stoop to "collect romantic notions." Finally, your plea for comparing apples with apples gets at the very root of the issue, which apparently you don't understand. The whole point is that there is no Edo kinko to compare to top-grade Momoyama iron (here I do include first-generation Higo, since they were effectively of a Momoyama sensibility, given the various contexts to be considered, especially that concerning Hosokawa Sansai). The two groups do not have "equal artistic qualities" because they do not have shared aesthetic sensibilities. This is the point. And seriously, Guido, I don't have to "belittle others' choices to make [mine] look better"; I am simply giving reasons for why I find Edo kinko to be of poor taste (yes, taste), even if the craftsmanship in some of these pieces is exquisite. But as you would say, if the shoe fits, wear it.

Well, I tried to stress that my views on Edo kinko are just my views, and that taste is an individual thing that is very difficult if not impossible to account for. And I started off "innocently" enough, though I did make the comment about Hideyoshi's over-the-top tea room. But really, George, if you hadn't introduced the "manhole covers," "old charcoal briquettes," and "Emperor's New Clothes" business in relation to old iron tsuba, I'd likely have not gotten into my personal views of Edo kinko. I find it ironic that you can state that "too often when proponents of iron extoll its virtue, they do so by putting down kinko and its proponents instead of simply talking about the values of iron," when it was you who really started this conversation in this direction by making the post you did (#18). To say that you think that "there are far too many collectors who are admiring the Emperor's New Clothes" is implying 1. that the tsuba in question are not deserving of this admiration; 2. that those who do admire such works are less than astute or are clearly not seeing things "correctly"; and that 3. you have the authority to determine which iron pieces are "manhole covers" and which are, in fact, legitimately good pieces. Sheesh. I'm still waiting for you to produce an example of an "old charcoal briquette" that would represent Emperor's New Clothes syndrome at work. I am very curious to see what early iron tsuba that others see as excellent is actually, according to you, one that is not worthy of such admiration/appreciation, and is in fact fooling those poor benighted collectors. Having said all of what I have, I am not intending to suggest that I think all or most iron tsuba are masterpieces. In my view, most are actually rather banal and ordinary works---serviceable and appealing enough, but not especially noteworthy, and not worthy of particular praise or appreciation (again, in my opinion). There are only a relative few that achieve the level of masterpiece, I would say. But I would also say that the very best iron tsuba (I mean here sword guards of the level of Nobuiye, Yamakichibei, Hoan, the Higo masters, etc...) are aesthetically superior to ANY Edo kinko tsuba. Why? Not because of any automatic technical superiority, necessarily (although the forged plates of such early iron masters are, I think, far more interesting and beautiful than the featureless plates of the majority of Edo kinko tsuba, a sentiment I know Dr. Torigoye would share in abundance), but because of the aesthetic sensibility and vision possessed by these early iron masters versus that of Edo kinko artists. An analogy I might draw here is between Noh and Kabuki theater. Kabuki, like Edo kinko, has broad appeal. It is popular. It is aimed at satisfying the masses. The lowest common denominator here is, well, low. Noh, on the other hand, requires a more educated audience to fully appreciate its nuances, allusions, and implications. It is subtle, layered, and yes, sophisticated. Yuugen, it may be argued, is the chief aesthetic principle/quality informing Noh theater. This same aesthetic value informs many of the great early iron tsuba (much as it did the Tea of Momoyama Japan, which is why it is necessary to study Tea in this period to understand the iron tsuba produced in that same period). It is not an aesthetic value to be found in Edo kinko. Does it make one/me an elitist to appreciate, embrace, and extoll the virtues of this value in early iron (Momoyama) tsuba, and to see other (Edo kinko) works as lesser? If so, I'm fine with that. I have no problem being an elitist. I actually like your term---jovial elitist. I think I shall adopt it. When we evaluate tsuba, we can of course assess the technical qualities of a given work, i.e. how well an artist has executed his vision and design. But evaluating merely the technical aspects is secondary at best. The primary consideration, I would argue, is the vision and design (that is, the aesthetic sensibility) itself. If an artist has a mediocre aesthetic sensibility, if his vision and design are second- or third-rate, how well he executes that vision/design becomes essentially irrelevant. And this is what you have with the huge majority of Edo kinko: third-rate aesthetic sensibility (see the Kabuki analogy above). So, sure, some of the technical aspects of these works are astounding, and the pieces can be "pretty," if one does not mind the treacly sentiment so many of them express. But for me, the greatness of the early (Momoyama) iron tsuba is in their combination of a deeply allusive and nuanced aesthetic sensibility with awesome technical achievement in the forging of the plate and their treatment of the plate (tsuchime, yakite, tekkotsu, jimon, patina, etc...), together with sensitively placed and rendered sukashi, nikubori, etc... The brilliant forming of the sugata, niku, rim, and other elements into a tactile, three-dimensional work of art completes a total package. It is the aesthetic sensibility, first and foremost, though, that matters. And as an elitist, I just don't see a high-level aesthetic sensibility in Edo kinko guards, with very, very few exceptions. Shrug. That's just how I see it.

Hi George, Well, I can agree with some things you offer here, but not others. I would certainly agree that kinko were used by bushi, and we can see from examples in Uchigatana no Koshirae, I believe, that soft-metal tsuba (yamagane, mostly, I think) were mounted on warriors' koshirae, at least sometimes. I don't find either of these points to be very debatable, really. Where I would not necessarily agree is that I'm "not being honest with [myself] if I can't agree that the Shomin kinko...is at least as good as [my] 'hard metal' example." The problem here is what you mean by "good." If by "good" you mean that the Shomin piece is as well made (i.e. technically executed) as the Yamakichibei guard here is, with that I can agree. Where I will certainly not agree is that the Shomin piece is anywhere near as tasteful (to use your term) as the Yamakichibei. I can't stand the Shomin tsuba. While I would not at all call it "gaudy," in my view, it is hopelessly saccharine, even mawkish, in presenting the subject it does (despite its technical excellence). The plate is bland, dull, featureless. The tsuba is utterly lacking in haki (power, ambition), an aesthetic value highly prized (in my sensibility of things). Then again, it's not trying to express this value. Which is perfectly fair: not all works need aim for the same aesthetic value/expression. But see, what we're really discussing here is taste, and as the saying goes, there is no accounting for taste. I can't say why I have always had (right from the beginning of my interest in this stuff) such a visceral dislike of all tsuba like this Shomin, or why I gravitate so strongly to the quiet iron guards, other than to say that certain Japanese aesthetic principles (yuugen, mono no aware, shubusa, sabi, including and especially haki) are vastly more appealing to me than others, and that some tsuba (such as many pre-Edo iron Owari works) satisfy this set of aesthetic principles/values far more effectively than other types of tsuba do, and this includes about 99.9% of Edo kinko. For me, a good deal of Edo kinko is akin to a ruby-studded gold Rolex in its aesthetic sensibility; even those Edo kinko tsuba which are not so flamboyantly bling-y are still often saddled with a dripping sentimentality that makes them (in my eyes) paragons of triteness. Is there anything inherently wrong with this? Maybe not, but the taste required to be drawn to such things is certainly not anything I've been blessed with. As for attempting to "persuade Chris by jovial elitism and embarrassment," remember, he came to us seeking help. If he is interested in expanding his taste, and learning what it is about some "manhole covers" that makes them great, and why so many are so celebrated by the Japanese, I am going to do what I can to help out.

Chris, In response to your query regarding masterpiece "wabi" koshirae, I can post this example here. I'm not sure I'd call it "wabi," exactly, but it certainly is spartan relative to many of the gaudy koshirae we are familiar with. This koshirae, incidentally, is juyo. Cheers, Steve

Oh, wait. Sorry. My mistake. This is an iron ita tsuba from the Momoyama Period made by nidai Yamakichibei, one of the most respected tsubako in Japanese history, an artist with a number of juyo tsuba to his name. Maybe there is more to appreciate here than first meets the eye...

Hey, look! I found an old iron manhole cover tsuba!

Henry, I've always liked that ko-Kagamishi piece. A nice, quiet beauty... Chris, the best book on koshirae I've seen is Uchigatana no Koshirae. Spectacular examples of all kinds of koshirae here. Grey should be able to get you a copy. WELL worth it.

George, Would you please be so good as to supply a few photos of these "manhole covers" and "charcoal briquettes" for us? I'd very much like to see these "emperor's new clothes" examples. Thanks.

And it needs to be said, too, that there is kinko, and then there is kinko. While I would love to have one of the two tsuba pictured here, the other is wholly unappealing (this is being kind). Both are kinko, technically, but it is akin to saying that a Siberian tiger and a tabby are both felines. One of these tsuba exhibits forcefully a value Kokubo Ken'ichi called Haki (power, ambition, unbridled spirit), while the other is trite, obvious, unimaginative, and the very embodiment of insipidity (all in my humble opinion, of course... ). Which is which?

On the other hand, Kaneie was Hideyoshi's Fushimi tsubako, so he must have had some taste...

Ah, so true... Here is Hideyoshi's Golden Tea Room. Makes me gag, but that's just me...

Hi Chris, I'm happy to help out if I can. Those who know me here will hear me go on and on about the virtues of pre-Edo iron, especially Azuchi-Momoyama Owari tsuba... So again, if you'd like to set up a time to talk in live time, just let me know. I'm in San Diego, so on USA west coast time. Just a thought or two to add quickly here. As concerns Tsuba: An Aesthetic Study, it was really the Introduction of the book that I found most rewarding, mostly because it confirmed/supported a viewpoint I'd long held: that it is the plate of the tsuba that matters first and foremost in a pieces's beauty, not any applied decoration, whether sukashi, carving, or inlay. The book is worth getting just to read this argument. Next, another "small" book on Japanese aesthetics is Donald Richie's A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics. It is all of 79 pages, but it introduces and explains many aesthetic terms/concepts that were in use from the earliest centuries of Japanese history, on through the Muromachi, Momoyama, and Edo periods. The book Ford mentions, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's In Praise of Shadows is one I not only echo in recommending, it's a book I quoted from rather liberally in an article I wrote on the importance of lighting in iron tsuba appreciation. I would second Henry's comment that for text, Sasano's gold book is the one to have, but for images, his silver book is a must-have. I should mention, too, that to really understand pre-Edo iron tsuba, you must also familiarize yourself with the Tea Ceremony and the articles used in that practice (the ceramics, in particular, for many of the aesthetic concerns attached to the Tea Ceremony (which was a hugely important cultural phenomenon of Momoyama and early Edo times) also informed the design and construction of upper-level iron guards. Contrary to what some might say, the finest of iron tsuba of those times were meant for high-ranking bushi, the same bushi who were also intimately involved with Tea. Finally, it's worth noting, I think, that the most celebrated tsubako of all time for the Japanese (generally speaking, of course) are Nobuiye and Kaneie, both of whom worked almost exclusively in iron and were Momoyama artists. Many will argue that these tsubako best expressed many of the most valued aesthetic principles of their age (or any) age. There is SO much more to say on this, Chris, so please do get in touch... Cheers, Steve

Hi Chris, Actually, I'd recommend Sasano's Early Japanese Sword Guards: Sukashi Tsuba as the best introductory text for appreciation of early iron guards. But I'd be more than happy to elaborate in detail on the merits of early iron tsuba... Please feel free to email me at stevewaszak@cox.net. We can get into lots of specifics. If necessary, we can arrange a phone call. Happy to help if I can... Steve

And, uh... What ever happened to the Buttweiler School pieces? Still floating around out there...with their papers? Wonder what else he made...

Thanks for this reminder, Pete: I do need to get a copy of this book. Don't know why I haven't up to now... I have had a few twisting, tortured experiences along the way! But none to top yours here. Alas, I haven't your resolve, Pete: I have fallen into the Pandora's box of ceramics, too... Hopeless and helpless I am...

Pete, Great story, congratulations on your "re-find," and thanks for posting the video. Really helps to bring these menuki to life!