dumb mon/symbol question...

[rkg]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to identify this mon/symbol that's repeated several times on the back side of this tsuba. it looks like they perhaps either had several variants of it, or just flipped the design side to side or something. I looked in the usual suspects (elements of Japanese design and the pointers and clues book) and couldn't find it.

 

Does anybody recognize this symbol?

 

Thanks,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[Curran]

Nice to see that ko-shoami again.

 

My thoughts on it were that the symbol is the same as that often seen on the brocade cloth parts of armor.

(I've also seen it on a number of kendo bags).

You might do better to ask in the armor section of the forum, as that is really a different knowledge base.

[templar44]

No idea if this is correct but as soon as I looked at it I was reminded of Jesus on the cross with the criminals that were crucified on either side of him. They were crucified on crosses that were not the same as the cross that Jesus had. Perhaps a symbol with hidden Christian meaning. Those who believed in Christ were persecuted so they were very subtle in the way they chose to identify themselves. I am probably way off the mark but as I stated earlier that is the first thing I thought of when I looked at the symbol.

 

Good Luck,

Tony Martin

 

As I post this I see Curran has offered a possible solution. His knowledge in this area is far greater than mine so I would bet on his thoughts. I thought I would throw it in anyway.

[Curran]

Yes, it would be easy to view this as the (three) crosses on the hill. I remember wondering that myself once upon a time.

But I think this particular symbol predates introduction of Christianity to Japan by a good bit, so probably not it.

 

Having a hard time finding a photo to back up my claim.

[Toryu2020]

This is a stylized representation of Shobu or iris,

as Curran has said very common on the stencilled leathers used in Japanese armour and later in other textiles like kendo bags...

-t

[Toryu2020]

and wonderful little tsuba BTW

-t

[templar44]

Good to know. I was probably being swayed by the fact that I do have a passing interest in Christian influenced Tsuba. Being that it was such a relatively small time frame and unique period in Japanese history I felt I would collect these type of fittings if I did start wandering down the fittings path.

 

Tony Martin

[rkg]

Tom,

 

Doh! and I even have a modern polearm bag with that stenciled on it! Thanks for the reply!

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)