Great Ko-Katchushi Tsuba: Apex of a Collection...

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

I just want to post a scan of a Juyo level Ko-Katchushi tsuba featured in the NBTHK monthly magazine issue #679. I would consider a tsuba like this my goal in collecting old iron tsuba. I have two Katchushi tsuba with a few similar features as this tsuba. Two with a lacquered surface and one which also has an identical style of rim that has a mid level paper by the NBTHK, but I would consider this example the complete package and an apex I haven't reached in my collecting of old iron tsuba. I just wanted to share a scan of this fine tsuba and hopefully spark a discussion among like minded collectors on NMB.

[Alex A]

Nice original tsuba David, i see the pagoda, but whats the other part of the design, snowflake and lanterns?

 

 

Alex.

[Brian]

Another one that proves how little I know about old iron tsuba. I would pass it by if it were on a table in a fleamarket at $250.

 

Brian

[Antti]

I sincerely hope I learn how to appreciate this tsuba one day.

[Soshin]

Hi Alex,

 

Here is the English translation provided by the NBTHK on thier website [http://www.touken.or.jp/].

 

Juyo Tosogu

 

To(tower), Kukuri saru (toy monkey), Sekka-mon (snow crystal mon) sukashi tuba

 

Mumei: Ko-katchushi

 

Ko-katchushi tsuba are classified being made by a katchushi craftsman in his leisure or extra time. The working period for this style is supposed to be before the Momoyama period. This is a large tsuba with a thin body, with simple sukashi work, and an okesoko-mimi (the bottom of an oke or barrel), and the entire tsuba is finished with urushi. The well forged jihada over a long time acquires a more interesting look, and with the urushi work, it has an elegant look, a classic mood, and is simple and refined looking. This is a representative work for ko-kashushi tsuba. The Gojunoto (five ring tower) symbolizes five thoughts and from the bottom represent “earth, water, fire, wind, and sky”. The stylized designs are a square shaped chirin (earth ring), a round mizurin (water ring), a triangle hirin (fire ring), a half round furin (wind ring), and a jewel shaped kuurin (sky ring). In Shingon-mikkyo (Buddhism), the Dainichi-nyorai’s (Buddha) Sanma-yagyo shape itself is Buddha, and same time represents the entire universe. Gojunoto work is seen from the Heian period, around the mid-12th century. This tsuba design contains a kukuri-saru, sekkamon, and gojunoto. This means, during wartime, the samurai had always had thoughts for people’s everyday life and Buddha’s feelings. This is a excellent tsuba, with a simple and robust look, but same time it has a feeling of a loving spirit and a praying heart.

 

 

Explanation by Kurotaki Tetsuya

 

Hi Brian R.,

 

How do you think I purchased this unpapered Katchushi tsuba.

[ROKUJURO]

Gentlemen,

 

I think the 'tower' is a buddhist pagoda and the theme is called GORINTO. KUKURI-SARU are tumble toys.

 

It is a wonderful TSUBA in very good condition. Thank you, David, for sharing!

[John A Stuart]

Yes, a Gorinto, funeral marker or headstone. John

[Bazza]

Hi Brian R.,

 

How do you think I purchased this unpapered Katchushi tsuba.

 

I would have almost been in Brian's camp, which just savagely underscores how difficult it is for a raw gaijin to understand the heart of samurai in those faraway times as expressed firstly in the illustrated tsuba and secondly in the NBTHK explanation. Sheer poetry of expression...

 

And the reason I replied - David, in your unpapered Katchushi tsuba pictured, are we not looking at the reverse???

 

Best regards,

Barry Thomas

(aka BaZZa.)

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is want I have for "gori no to" which is the design on the left.

The five-tiered stupa of Esoteric (Tamtruc) Buddhism, which is a graphic representation of a variety of concepts: the five elements of existence, the human body, the five cakras, etc.

The above quote is a small part of a entry taken from Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts by Dr. David A. Hall.

 

P.S. John S. comment is true as similar style markers are often found in Japanese graveyards. Keeping in mind that cremation was often done and still done in Japan as part of a Buddhist funeral ritual so the term headstone would not be applicable in this case.

 

P.S.S Barry T., yes I posted the ura and not the omote. I can post the omote later if necessary.

[ROKUJURO]

David,

 

the following I extracted from WIKIPEDIA:....Gorintō (五輪塔) ("five-ringed tower")...

[seattle1]

Hello:

Thanks for posting the tsuba from Token Bijutsu #679, which I take to be a Juyo piece, but the text might be read as "similar to the Juyo", I am not sure, but I will assume it is Juyo. I don't have a copy to check. You invite discussion, so here goes.

First, if the information was available it would be so helpful to have the dimensions included, in millimeters, including both the seppa-dai thickness and the mimi thickness. That might not have been in the journal.

I am very surprised to find such an example called Juyo, and here is why. It appears as if the gorintoh is the original ko-sukashi element, with everything else other than the nakago-ana, added. Assuming it was carried on an uchigatana by a lower level samurai the placement of the gorintoh is appropriate and pleasing. Such samurai would not normally have had accommodations in their koshirae for a kodzuka, so that seems to have been added and at one time awkwardly enlarged. The monkey-like figures, sometimes referred to a Dharma dolls, look awkward. If dolls the idea is that they would wobble if pushed and then return to an upright position; who knows what these would do. The snowflake, if it is that, adds nothing that I can figure out, except possibly to accompany those small Japanese monkeys as that theme is common in life and painting, if indeed they are monkeys. That would make some sense as winter and snow might be complementary to the lonely gorintoh. In any event everything on the left looks cluttered and added.

The excerpt speaks of katchushi as armor makers who did tsuba for a sideline. If you will check with the Ogawa Morihiro catalogue done for the Met show of a few years ago (2009) you will see the economic organization of armor making discussed by Ikeda Hiroshi, wherein he says that the man titled "katchu-shi" was the lead craftsman responsible for directing others in the making and assembly of the product, p. 42. It sounds as if that important person was like the master craftsman in the cottage industry system of England during the time of before and during the early Industrial Revolution. I doubt such a person would be crafting tsuba.

Our entire understanding of ko-toshi and ko-katchushi makers is highly speculative; perhaps the division of terms is less useful than the efforts that have gone into defining the division, but that is another thread.

Given the popularity in recent years of both ko-tosho and ko-katchushi, their scarcity and cost, one can imagine how expensive one designated Juyo would be. For the thousands involved I believe one could do much better than the illustrated example discussed at a major US show or even the Dai Token Ichi. Our Chinese friends haven't missed the market shift, so be careful; if the box contains fortune cookie residue, watch out!

Just may 2 cents worth.

Arnold F.

[kaigunair]

Our Chinese friends haven't missed the market shift, so be careful; if the box contains fortune cookie residue, watch out!

Arnold F.

 

Very interesting comments!

 

I'm with Brian on Iron tsubas, probably worse, so I can't add much there. However, I did want to point out that its only recently that fortune cookies have been made in China to be sold to the US. Not only are fortune cookies more US than Chinese, their origins are more Japanese than Chinese. Looking for fortune cookies to be given out at a restaurant in China is like looking for California rolls in a sushi restaurant in Japan; it could happen but not the norm.

 

But returning to the tsuba in question....

[Ford Hallam]

Our entire understanding of ko-toshi and ko-katchushi makers is highly speculative; perhaps the division of terms is less useful than the efforts that have gone into defining the division, but that is another thread.

 

Arnold F.

 

and I would have to agree with the rest of your post also, Arnold. A very lackluster example in my opinion.

 

regards,

 

Ford

[Alex A]

I appreciate these old simple tsuba, from an historical point of view, the same way one may look at a Roman coin for instance. Simple tsuba, not to impress, but does try, thats its appeal, to me.

 

Alex.

[christianmalterre]

seems everything old is getting Juyo these days... ?

 

Christian

[Pete Klein]

I think it looks rather cozy...

[Soshin]

I think it looks rather cozy...

 

Hi Pete,

 

I completely agree but it is best not to enrage the tsuba fashionistas...

Just a joke guys just relax... I was meaning this to be a light hearted topic. Not rehash old debates about if these tsuba were made by armorsmiths, swordsmiths, or virgin shrine maidens. The last one is my current working theory. :lol:

 

P.S. Here is a link on my website to a NBTHK papered Katchushi tsuba of mine that has a very similar rim http://dastiles1.wix.com/reflections-#!Art-View/zoom/c211q/images6p. It also has signs of black lacquer as well along the plate.

[Henry Wilson]

To all you lonely hearts out there.....

 

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rkelly/n ... elove.html

[Baka Gaijin]

Good morning all

 

Here's an extremely detailed explanation of Gorintō 五輪塔.

 

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/5 ... stone.html

 

Cheers

[dir]

Actually, there are two similar examples in the book by Masayuki Sasano entitled Early Japanese Sword Guards: Sukashi Tsuba (Japan Publications, Inc., 1972). They are both classed as Ko-Katchushi and one has an elongated Buddhist pagoda at right and two crossed scythes at left (p39); the other has simply a five section Buddhist tower at right (p44), both dated to early Muromachi period. As Jean C. said earlier the designs at left are Monkey tumbler toys (Kukurizaru) - there is an example on p42 of another Ko-Katchushi tsuba with a pair of them at lower right.

 

David

[Brian]

Resurrecting a post from August 2013?

I think they call that Necro-posting on some forums

 

Brian

[kissakai]

Hi

I couldn't resist putting my tsuba as I can't see me buying better

From Maruisz who educated me on plain iron tsuba but still loads to learn

No papers - Size 82 x 82 x 3.1mm

Recently (prior to this image) was repatinated by Ford Hallam so you will have to visualise the improvement

 

 

 

Grev UK