Quality of tsuba on yahoo.jp?

[Mantis dude]

Hi all,

 

I am looking at this tsuba and trying to figure out how good is it? http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u55289299

I think the nanako looks fairly good. Not sure about the inlay and haven't dealt with this type of inlay although I have seen some similar. Something isn't total clicking for me and I don't know why but when this happens usually others can point out things to me- I just can't always break it down into specifics. a few things that bother me, the inlay on the wheel is just on the front of the plate and on better work I usually see it going around the side. The area around the nakaga ana is also bothering me, perhaps it has been colored? Maybe the photos themselves aren't helping. I am thinking the price is off but then again sometimes when I am not familiar with a school/ technique I can be wrong. Appreciate comments- thanks.

Ken

[kaigunair]

[Brian]

Nanako on iron is not common. The tsuba doesn't do a lot for me, but the gold application looks nicely done, and it certainly fits your theme.

But I would have thought closer to $800 or less.

 

Brian

[seattle1]

Hello:

Without commenting on price, I would only add that nanako on iron is unusual, however you should ask the question "is the piece an older piece, as the apparent signs of age indicate, with the nunome added at a latter date, and is such decoration appropriate if part of it is under the seppa on a mounted sword?"

Arnold F.

[Mantis dude]

Thanks for the input. And Arnold, that is one of the things that bothered me- the nunome looks very fresh so to speak. Just another thing not clicking for me. It does seem that adding decorations to older pieces isn't unheard of and in fact seems to happen often enough to not make it a rare occurrence. I guess a big factor would be when was the decoration added?

 

A question I am asking myself is why is nanako so rare on iron? Is iron too hard/tedious for most to do nanako?

 

Thanks.

[seattle1]

Hello:

That is a good question Ken; I hope someone who really knows chimes in. If I had to guess I would say that nanako tends to be associated with kinko work and traditions. It would seem to me that the skill required to do it on soft metal or iron would be about equally challenging as both media would be unforgiving of error. From an economic point of view I imagine that some craftsmen just become very skilled in working on, say, shakudo, and transferring the skill to iron presents slight adaptation changes that are prone to more error. Iron just seems to be a less pleasing medium for nanako and there would be fewer hyper specialists doing that work on iron.

Aesthetics are an individual matter, but it seems to me that such a tsuba would be, in the eyes of the Japanese, what a Westerner might appreciate in the Meiji era when no amount of "workmanship" was sometimes expended on stuff meant for the West. The site is Japanese, but of course if that theory is correct it could have been re-exported to Japan more recently.

Arnold F.

[Shugyosha]

Some of the rows of nanako don't look particularly evenly spaced. Looking above the mantis's back leg there appear to be two lines that run into one another and a similar thing appears to happen above the water wheel by the mantis's head.

 

That said, I'm new to sword fittings so please feel free to educate me.

 

Kind regards,

 

John J.

[Ford Hallam]

Here's my 2 yen's worth

 

I think he gold decoration is actually true inlay (nunome-zogan would be perhaps risky if one were to punch a nanako pattern over it, it would likely cause some loss to the gold). Also, it would be virtually impossible to apply nunome-zogan after the nanako ground had been struck, can you imagine cutting a fine cross hatch texture over a nanako ground....I can't , so the decoration was inlaid at the original time of munufacture. I don't think the fact that part of the insects antennae crosses the seppa-dai is really noteworthy or indicative of much. There are many examples form the early Edo period onwards that show a similar 'looseness' and 'flaunting of the rules' in this respect.

 

The style of inlay reminds me of Kaga work.

 

Personally speaking I don't find the 'rustic' quality of the nanako troublesome at all. I think it important to judge, or appreciate work in it's own context. This is clearly not in the same same class as Ishiguro or fine Goto work but if it were considered alongside some types of Ko-Kinko it would be deemed very appealing I feel.

 

From a technical point of view nanako on iron is the same as on soft metals. The only additional concern is damage to the punch. This may be why, in this case, the dimples are quite shallow. A less deep punch will suffer less impact stress when being struck.

 

And for reference here are some Kaga examples from the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. Ishikawa used to be called Kaga.

 

These are obviously much finer but the style of the insects is very similar and I know Ken loves his mantises :D and one of the kozuka shows nanako over inlaid grasses albeit in shakudo.

 

[Mantis dude]

Hey Ford,

 

You surprised me and added more to your post. As I privately emailed you, this tsuba is actually in the Kaga Taikan. So you totally hit it on the head. Good opportunity to learn and expose myself to something new. Thanks for the help and setting me in the correct direction. Thanks.

Ken

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Ken

 

glad to have helped. I don't have the Kaga Taikan so I just got lucky

[Gabriel L]

Re: that tsuba, this is the second time this week I've seen that gorgeous basket weave pattern on fittings. There was another sword someone posted somewhere with that pattern on the fuchi. I love it, not sure how I never saw it before! Anyone know what it's called?

 

Thanks,

—G.

[Mantis dude]

Hi Gabriel,

 

I was reviewing this post and figured I answer a little. I don't know the exact name for basket weave but it is actually fairly common to many schools. that tsuba is also in the Kaga Kinko taiken. But I know of tsuba with basket weave papered to Shoami, seem them in choshu school, etc. So while I agree it makes a nice effect, you can find it in many schools.

 

All the best.

Ken

P.S. I would obviously love to have that tsuba. One of my favorite schools is Kaga. The fact they like to use a lot of mantids in their design is just a bonus!