Information on Tsuba

[Stephen V]

Hi All

 

I have not posted here for some time but I am still an avid lurker :D

 

I won two tsuba several years ago (possibly around 2008) in the annual raffle and have been very pleased with them, however I must admit I have no knowledge of the correct terminology of the style, period or school they belong to.

 

I have to firstly appologize to the donor as I am not now sure who the generous member was but if anyone here could let me know a little about this particular tsuba I would be most grateful.

 

The pictures are not really the best and do not do the quality of the workmanship or sublty of the brass highlighting any justice, but that being said they are probably the best I can do given the need to reduce the picture size so dramatically to enable them to be uploaded here.

 

Cheers

[John A Stuart]

Hello Stephen, I have corrected the spelling in your topic header from stuba to tsuba. These are decorative objects. John

[Soshin]

Hi Stephen,

 

In my opinion you tsuba looks to be from the Meiji Period. It was never indented to me mounted on a Nihonto and was made and sold mostly for the export market. The Japanese term for this "shiiremono". Would a more detail discussion of how I arrived at this conclusion be helpful?

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi!Your Tsuba was from me.The artist is Motonobu from the Higashiyama-Family (Haynes H 05901.0 ),who worked in the 2nd half of the 19th Century.There was one with his Kao in the once famous Dr.Fahrenhorst Collection,shown in Inami Tomohiko's book from 1969 about Tsuba that have been bought back from German collectors: pages 28 and 29.Ludolf

[Soshin]

Hi Ludolf,

 

Thanks for the more specific information about who made the tsuba during the Meiji Period. I will take out my copy of Hanyes's Index and look up the artist this evening. I was wanting to add this is a good example of shirimono produced in the Meiji Period.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Stephen V]

Once again thanks to all the members posting interesting and helpful replies here.

 

Just love this message board.

 

And a belated salutation to Ludolf for the donation

 

I must admit that I always suspected that this was never mounted or meant to be mounted on a blade as it just seemed too crisp and unused.

 

But having said that I still do find it a very nicely executed piece of artwork that I now know was made well over one hundred years ago.

 

My photos just do not bring up the depth of the relief carvings (I'm assuming this was not a cast piece?) and the delicacy of the brass highlighting. When held at an angle to a light source it has a very strong three dimentional look.

 

Am I correct in assuming that the story depicted on both sides of this piece relate to some well known Japanese folk tale?

 

Cheers

[Stephen V]

David

 

If you want a higher resolution picture of this piece I am happy to send it to you.

 

Just PM me with your email address.

[Soshin]

Hi Stephen V.,

 

No the tsuba designs were carved and inlayed. I will send you a PM shortly so you can send me better photos for my reference. The two quickest indicators that this tsuba was never intended to be mounted on a sword is because 1) it lacks a seppa-dai area free from a design carving and inlay around the nakago-ana to rest the seppa used to fit and fill gaps between the tsuka, tsuba, and habaki, 2) the nakago-ana has never been altered to fit a nakago of a Nihonto.

The Japanese generally use the term shiiremono which literally means “received commodity”to describe these type of decorative art of the Meiji Period while nicer pieces were for domestic use a larger proportion of pieces were of lower quality intended for export to west.

Haynes's Index has the following dates for is signed works 1867 and 1875. The last date is the 8th year of Meiji Period. It is record that he was born in city of Mito Hitachi Province and work at Mukogaoka in Tokyo. Hope you find this little bit of additional information helpful.

 

Edit:

Here is a link to a signed tsuba by this artist at a Christie's Auction http://www.christies.com/lotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4777232 this was provided by Stephen V. by email.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles