Hirado Kunishige, namban?

[Bugyotsuji]

Can anyone point me to some illustration of Nagasaki Namban tsuba work for comparison, specifically Hirado Kunishige? I have a rather unusual wakizashi tsuba with a... deniable Christian (?) theme to it.

[nagamaki - Franco]

http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/hoan.htm , http://www.bing.com/search?q=Hirado+Kunishige&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC

[Bugyotsuji]

Franco, "Just Google it!" I hear you say! :lol: Many thanks. Lots of lovely links to play with.

 

Just found this NMB thread!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11198

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hi Piers,

 

Didn't have much time to play with it earlier, but still enjoyed a quick look around, you're welcome.

[MauroP]

Hi, Piers

I think your tsuba is very interesting, nevertheless probably has nothing to do with Christian influence. In my opinion it depict an umpan (雲板), i.e. a cloud-shaped gong which was in use in Zen monasteries.

I have a tsuba shaped almost in the same way, but neither mine nor others I found on the Internet have nikubori sukashi carvings which resemble Namban school tradition.

Here it is my tsuba:

and some links to similar items:

http://www.klefisch.com/index.php?page_ ... temid=9758

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/t ... gong-11696

http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/tuba_guard654.html

Bye, Mauro

[Lorenzo]

Piers my friend I agree with Mauro about the design.

 

Yours is nanban but why you mention Kunishige? Did our common friend suggested you so?

Usually Kunishige tsuba are signed. Yours is mumei? I've never seen an Hirado Kunishige tsuba similar to the OP. By coincidence I possessed a fuchi/kashira set by the man though.

[Bugyotsuji]

Mauro, many thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Yes, indeed there is that shape again! Most interesting. This tsuba did not cost me a fortune, and is certainly not of great age or of superb quality, and not as large as I would have liked, but the unusual shape and execution intrigued me.

 

Lorenzo, no, not our mutual friend but someone with a stunning collection of top-quality Tsuba, who writes for collectors' magazines in Japan. I will look forward to going back and presenting Mauro's idea to him.

 

*****Apologies for the delay in reply. As indicated on another thread here, I am travelling and in a disrupted period at present, not always able to get to a computer terminal, and unusually for me I completely missed your kind replies.