NLPathfinder

Orientations_Jul-Aug-2019-James-Lancel-McElhinney.pdf This may answer a lot of questions. The attached peer-reviewed article was published in the July-August issue of Orientations magazine. In a nutshell, "Nanban" is Japanese catchall lingo for "foreign," similar to the earlier term "Ezo", which like "Kanton" and Kagonami" fittings bear stylistic resemblances to central Asian design and Mongolian taste, and little to do with the indigenous Ainu arts of Japan. The saddle plates illustrated in Joly's article are Tibetan. While I did not touch on it in this article, there are a good number of so-called "Nanban" tsuba that are actually Japanese Tosho and Katchushi guards that were exported abroad, where they were embellished to local taste. Dutch colonies in Java and Sri Lanka produced weapons (and sword guards) for use as business and diplomatic gifts. After 1684, a brisk sea-trade flowed between China and Nagasaki. Like the Dutch, Chinese merchants also bore gifts. Tsuba and other goods were produced in Nagasaki's Toujin Yashiki (Chinatown), to which the Jakushi school appears to have had close ties. A number of books have been published recently debunking the "Sakoku" fairy-tale of Japanese isolation—at least as far as trade is concerned. These are listed in the bibliography of the Orientations article. Maybe ten years ago now, Peter Dekker (a dealer in fine Asian arms) and I shared a lot of our research. His website is packed with useful information: https://www.mandarin...-export-sword-guards I also created a Facebook page devoted to Asian export sword guards: https://www.facebook...p?id=100064636361953 Much of the confusion surrounding "Nanban" tsuba is the word itself, which is far too general and arbitrary to inhabit any useful taxonomy. Tosogu collectors would benefit greatly from expanding the scope of their research to a broader understanding of Asian decorative art, and how it was circulated by maritime trade. What Asian Export sword guards (Nanban tsuba) teach us is that Edo-period Japan was far less isolated than some would have the world believe.

This guard is probably late 18th century. The kozuka-hitsu has been added, when the guard was adapted to jJapanese use. The so-called "Kanton" style was patterned after Tibetan saddle-plates accompanying tribute-horses, and was very popular with the Qing military. These were called "Kanton" because they were imported by merchants from Guangzhou (Canton), even though the style comes from Central Asia and the Himalayas. Even though the Qianlong emperor specified rounded corners on the sword-handles of his personal guard in 1748, some Chinese swords did not reflect the change, retaining right-angle corners well into the 19th c. The carved seppa-dai on this guard is purely decorative, which suggests that the piece may have been created to be used as a greeting-gift by the Dutch, or as Rangaku-miyage by Japanese studying European science and Chinese medicine in Nagasaki. The design is purely Chinese, but the obsessive carving has more of a Japanese feeling. To make matters even more confusing, there is evidence that Nagasaki Chinatown (Tojin Yashiki) merchants employed both Chinese and Japanese metalworkers. The "tell" there is if one finds a guard signed "Kiyou no ju". "Kiyou" was the Chinese word for "Nagasaki". It is important to remember that Kyushu, had a very different self-image than the rest of Japan, and closer ties to the outside world. Here is a similar example. https://www.facebook.com/564035753684007/photos/a.564266740327575.1073741828.564035753684007/1039595759461335/?type=3&theater

I can confirm that research has been ongoing for several years, and that a book on the subject of Nanban tsuba is being prepared. A number of articles on the subject have appeared in the newsletter of the Japanese Sword Society of the United States. Peter Dekker has been a most invaluable and esteemed collaborator in connecting pan-Asian arms-making with so-called Nanban tsuba. "Nanban" and "Namban" are the same term, romanized slightly differently. My research looks into the conduct of the VOC and how these sword-guards were used within the context of maritime trade and Asian Export luxury trade-goods. More I cannot share at this time. I am happy to invite you to enjoy regular posts on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Asian-Export-sword-guards-and-Nanban-tsuba-564035753684007/ As for my credential, they are easily searched online. In the 1980s I was a founder of the Philadelphia Area Token Kai and founding editor of the JSSUS journal Art and The Sword. Currently I am a member of the New York Armor and Arms Club, JSSUS, the Company of Military Historians, and a supporter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Arms and Armor Department. Respectfully, James Lancel McElhinney

The sword-guard on the right is similar to those made to order in Sri Lanka for the VOC. I found a close comparable for the carving in small sword garniture in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dual-system nakago-ana is a sign that these were produced for regions with different sword-tang cross-sections. There is documentation that the Dutch used weapons as gifts to Monsoon Asian rulers, and that they also used sword guards as greeting-gifts in Japan. There is also documentation that the VOC ordered weapons from Sinhalese workshops--even importing VOC-marked Solingen hanger-blades to be mounted in the Sri Lankan manner. Solingen blades were also imported to Japan where they were mounted in the Sawasa (Tonkinese) style by Nagasaki craftsman and then shipped by the Dutch for sale in the European market, Two such swords are also at the Met. My apologies for not visiting this fascinating site more often. I post regularly on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Asian-Export-sword-guards-and-Nanban-tsuba-564035753684007/