Authenticity question

[svarsh]

This is a soten tsuba from my late grandfather collection. The question that I have is whether it is genuine piece of art or a later "docks of Yokohama" copy.

Thank you in advance.

Sergei

[John A Stuart]

I believe a copy. John

[docliss]

I agrree; it is probably an Aizu Shoami copy. John L.

[svarsh]

Thank you, John and John. If you could also educate me what makes you make your attribution, I would be most grateful, as I am just starting and need to learn a lot.

[docliss]

I will attempt to answer Sergei’s request to John Stuart any myself for our reasons for labelling his tsuba as Hikone-bori rather than Sōten work.

 

Since the vast majority of such work (Torigoye states 95 per cent) is Edo period work by workers at Yokohama, one starts with an assumption that a given piece is unlikely to be genuine Sōten work. Add to this the fact that there were probably only two main-line Sōten masters working in the province of Omi in the first half of the eighteenth century, under whose supervision there was a virtual factory of artists producing this work; and the extensive reproduction of this work by the Aizu Shōami and Hiragiya workers, the likelihood of finding genuine Sōten work is very remote.

 

The work of the masters is predominantly of iron, although the second did occasionally use shakudō. Their work is far less elaborate, and with less ubu-zukashi than the crowded scenes of later workers. Indeed, some of the first master’s work is almost Mino-bori in its appearance, featuring flowers and birds on an ita plate. The majority of Hikone-bori work bears the full, lengthy mei of the masters, GOSHU HIKONE (NO)JU SOHEISHI NYUDO SOTEN SEI. While many of these mei are rendered in unusually large kanji, those of the masters were either normal or smaller in size. It has been suggested that the kanji for ‘shi’ in Sōheishi (子) is rendered with a lozenge-shaped, rather than the horizontal, linear first stroke, in the mei of the masters, but this feature may also be frequently found in the mei of copies.

 

Gemmell (Tosōgu: Treasures of the Samurai (1991), pp.48-9) describes a subsection of this group, which he labels ‘Large Figure’ Sōtens, but these are not the work of the early masters, and further research is needed to ascertain their origin.

 

John L.

[Adrian]

Also this topic on a similar subject is well worth reading http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... f=2&t=2155

 

John posted there some fine examples of shakudo Hikone-bori tsuba.