For study: Goto Mitsutaka

[Ford Hallam]

Cheers Brian, yes, I think it all goes to show how much background there is to explore when really studying these artefacts.

 

I've been sent yet another few images of a tsuba by Mitsutaka and one that is a greatly enlarged close up of the actual chisel work.

 

What this reveals is that while he was perhaps emulating kata-kiri work he wasn't using the same technique or chisel at all. He used a standard 'v' shaped kebori chisel and one which additionally had slightly curved sides and apex at the cutting tip This is why his cuts seem so soft and less crisp when contrasted with classical kata-kiri bori. It's also why we see relatively little 'shading', or swelling and thinning, in his cuts, by which I mean the usual brush-like effect we expect from Kata-kiri work.

 

I should make clear that while regular line engraving is a fundamental technique common to all types of decorative work, akin to drawing with a pencil, kata-kiri bori is a very specialised and different technique and one that requires a very different understanding of the chisel's use.

 

This leads me to wonder if at this relatively early time the actual tool and technique was still a school secret and here Mitsutaka was trying to figure it out on the outside.

[kaigunair]

  Ford Hallam said:

The title the tsuba has been given, "Narihira Azuma kudari", refers to the exile of courtier-poet Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) from Kyoto. This is one of the tales in the Ise monogatari (10th century)

 

Not to hijack this thread, but that figure of the page holding a sword looks like the copper figure in the large tsuba I posted a while back, which also had kanji related to poems or literary treasure.....the gears are turning..

[Kevin Adams]

  Ford Hallam said:

What this reveals is that while he was perhaps emulating kata-kiri work he wasn't using the same technique or chisel at all. He used a standard 'v' shaped kebori chisel and one which additionally had slightly curved sides and apex at the cutting tip This is why his cuts seem so soft and less crisp when contrasted with classical kata-kiri bori. It's also why we see relatively little 'shading', or swelling and thinning, in his cuts, by which I mean the usual brush-like effect we expect from Kata-kiri work.

[Ford Hallam]

To illustrate the difference in technique this is a close up of classic kata-kiri bori on a tsuba by Yokoya Soyo II. (1700- 1779) This is not the 1st Soyo who founded the school but the 3rd Master of the Yokoya school, the son of Somin. Haynes tells us he is regarded as having produced the finest kata-kiri of that school.

 

 

And to better illustrate the vigour and power of the Master's work here's an image of the same tsuba that I've inverted the colours on to better reveal the design and shape of the cuts. I used this as part of a teaching exercise.

[cabowen]

Masterwork seems to always stand out from the crowd. This Yokoya tsuba drops one's jaw and just sucks one in, unlike lesser work.

[Brian Ayres]

Thanks Henry, Ford, and everyone else. I added Bowie's book with a couple other's yesterday. I can only soak up so much information at once! My brain is saturated.

 

The carving on that last tsuba is superb. I'll print that negative and put it in my shop with your permission Ford?

 

Best Regards,

 

Brian Ayres