A fake

[kissakai]

Hi

I bought this tsuba in a job lot and pretty sure it is a fake.

If it is I was going to thin it down (currently 5mm thick) and recut the shape into a design I like

I would just like your opinion before I do this

Out of curiosity I googled Japanese axe to see which forms they used as I was sure they didn't use one of this shape

I assume the lower detail represents lightning

 

 

 

Grev UK

[Ford Hallam]

This is a fairly accurate copy of an very well known Akasaka tsuba by Tadamasa, first master.

 

 

It's most likely a modern hobbyist work but is perfectly honest work for that. Certainly not a fake in the sense it was made to deceive.

 

I wouldn't change it myself because the design is already generally regarded as a masterpiece and in terms of design it really is. I imagine you've read about the elderly Spanish lady who 'restored' a 19th cent. fresco in her local church. A cautionary tale

 

 

If you want to work with thinner metal and make a different design why not just start from new?

[tony edmunds]

LOL The "hairy monkey in a sack" painting.

When I first found this on the BBC our entire office was in fits of laughter for hours.

 

However its not much worse than a beautiful nashiji and kinmakie tachi saya "restored" by being painted in several lumpy coats of Blackboard paint!

 

Hopefully the worst excesses of 1970s restoration are over now that peope have some idea of the value of this stuff!

 

Tony

[kissakai]

Thanks for the advice - I will leave well alone

I hadn't seen the orignal - thanks for the image

Wonder why6 I hadn't seen this type of axe on my preliminary search

 

 

Gre UK

[Mantis dude]

while this seems a bit different always check this site- this guy reproduces tons of different tsuba- not fakes but could easily turn into 1. There are a lot of sub links, sometimes you have to click on them all just to know what is being produced. I post this site every year or so and it is worth checking to see what could be wrongly being sold. sorry just had surgery on wrist otherwise would have tried to get pic to post. too much tyrping for me.

 

http://tsubaryuken.com/12shasinB/12G-48.html

http://tsubaryuken.com/05uresuji.html

http://tsubaryuken.com/main.html

[Baka Gaijin]

Good morning Grev,

 

The design under the axe edge is stylised Pine Bark - Matsu Kawa Bishi.

 

You will see it as a Kamon in its own right or as a surround to another.

 

Here's a speculation for Ford, who I believe thrives upon such piquant Fayre...

 

Does the Tadamasa original contain a message regarding a clan who bore the Matsukawa Bishi Kamon, or is it just about chopping wood.......

 

 

Cheers

[Henry Wilson]

I think symbolisim of an axe is quite complex.

 

Have a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ono_%28weapon%29

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Malcolm,

 

The actual pairing of ax and pine, while used in Kamon, derives originally from a Noh play (sasano makes reference to one in his description of this tsuba) So I'd suggest that in this case the Play gave rise to the tsuba. This makes sense to me also because the Akasaka school was very much a product of early urban art scene in Edo with most of their designs being drawn from artistic developments around them.

[Baka Gaijin]

Give the man a cigar!!!!

 

Thanks Ford for the reply and Henry for the Link.

 

Might the Noh play be Hagoromo?

 

(Here's a bit of trivia....though Matsu can mean "pine tree" (松), it can also mean "to wait" or "to pine" (待つ). )

 

Veering off at a wild tangent, the axe shape looks very much like the one that Kurosawa uses for the woodcutter in Rashomon.

 

 

Cheers

[Henry Wilson]

 

(Here's a bit of trivia....though Matsu can mean "pine tree" (松), it can also mean "to wait" or "to pine" (待つ). )

 

 

I think the "to pine" connection is a bit of a stretch. :lol: To yearn / pine is 慕う shitau.

 

Incidently 末 matsu call also mean "end of" seen in 幕末 bakumatsu which is the closing days of the Tokugawa era.

[Ford Hallam]

I'm not much of a Noh play aficionado so I don't have a clue :D

The double meaning of motifs and subtle allusions are, of course, central to Japanese Poetry. My take on this tsuba would be that the wearer would be displaying a degree of cultural refinement and literary awareness intended to override the notion the warrior class were boorish and uneducated bully boys.

[Baka Gaijin]

Again thank you Henry and Ford.........

 

Cheers