New Tsuba...

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

I was able to do some photos of a new tsuba picked up last weekends Baltimore Japanese sword show. The measurements are 7.1 cm wide by 7.2 cm high. The thickness of the rim ranges from 6.6-6.8 mm and is 7.0 mm at the seppa-dai. The rim is round, thick, and bold displaying a few fine iron bones. The sukashi is a mixture of robust and fine. The iron is well forged and has a nice blackish-brown patina with a glossy luster.

 

The openwork design is interesting and related to the Chinese Buddhist monk Jittoku. He is often represented by a broom and is regarded as a incarnation of Fugen Bosatsu. I came across this after reading The Art Appreciation of Japanese Sword Fittings by Shigeo Fukushi. The other elements in the of the somewhat abstract design are a pine tree and a crescent moon. Does anyone know how these additional designs are related to Jittoku? The line carvings along the broom is a nice touch which leaves with me the impression that the broom is much closer to the viewer then the pine tree and crescent moon. Please feel free to discuss and thanks for reading.

[Henry Wilson]

Hi David

 

Nice tsuba. The broom is a popular metaphor in Zen I think with the idea of sweeping away the debri that settles on our Minds. I wonder if the motif is in fact referring to the koan called Yuyan sweeps the ground:

 

As Yunyan was sweeping the ground, Daowu said, "Too busy."

Yunyan said, "You should know there's one who isn't busy."

Daowu said, "If so, then there's a second moon."

Yunyan helpd up the broom and said, "Which moon is this?"

 

The tsuba looks Akasaka but I feel the iron is a bit to dark, but then again I could be completely wrong.

 

Hope this is of help.

[Soshin]

Hi Henry,

 

Thanks for the reply. You could be right about the openwork design. I did a search for "Daowu" and came across a set of Koan compiled by the Japanese Zen monk Dogen. I will try to do more reading on the websites I have found. I am sure Koan were in general a popular design theme for art in the Edo Period.

The darkness might be my new light source used in the photos. It is a LED lamp based light source. In terms of the workmanship of the tsuba the great thickness and much smaller nonfunctional kogai hitsu-ana along with characteristic straight and stiff openwork makes me think Ko-Akasaka in terms of school attribution. The previous owner was thinking 3rd generation Akasaka master but I can't be that specific and have seen similar tsuba with just a Ko-Akasaka attribution by the NBTHK.

[Tanto54]

The theme of this tsuba may be from a Noh Play entitled Takasago (see the famous version by Zeami from the Muromachi era). In the play, a priest meets an old couple caring for a magnificent pine tree. The husband (Jou) is raking up fallen pine needles (gathering good fortune) and the wife (Uba) is sweeping (evil away) with her broom. You will often find this motif (marital fidelity) on kodogu in the form of a crossed rake and broom or an old couple with those tools in conjunction with a pine tree (and sometimes a crescent moon). The couple reveals to the priest that the husband is the spirit of the famous pine at Takasogo (a place) and the wife is the spirit of the famous pine at Simiyoshi (another place across the bay). Even though far apart, they have remained faithful to each other for eternity. The elderly couple depart in a boat for Simiyoshi and the priest follows. When the priest arrives at Simiyoshi he finds the spirit-god of Sumiyoshi, a young beautiful goddess, who dances beneath the bright crescent moon for him (with a broom leaning against a pine tree). This tsuba could be from a set where the other tsuba would have depicted a rake leaning against a pine.

[seattle1]

Hello:

Jittoku is a rather inspired guess on Shoshin's part, with even more imaginative guesses following, but sometimes the more obvious might be closer. It does look Akasaka and confirmatory layers of metal in the vertical spaces might confirm that though they are not always present.

Jittoku is almost always seen in the company of his side kick Kanzan, the latter with a scroll in hand, and Jittoku is inside a building, often in a kitchen sweeping it out as that was place link for both of them. The broom and pine alone suggest something else to me.

I suspect the theme alluded to is that of a tea ceremony about to take place in a small and humble hut under the pines. The host will thoughtfully sweep the walk to the hut his guests are about to enter.

Arnold F.

[Soshin]

Jittoku is almost always seen in the company of his side kick Kanzan, the latter with a scroll in hand, and Jittoku is inside a building, often in a kitchen sweeping it out as that was place link for both of them. The broom and pine alone suggest something else to me.

I suspect the theme alluded to is that of a tea ceremony about to take place in a small and humble hut under the pines. The host will thoughtfully sweep the walk to the hut his guests are about to enter.

Arnold F.

 

Hi Arnold F.,

 

Thanks for the reply and joining the discussion. That is true and was discussed in The Art Appreciation of Japanese Sword Fittings by Shigeo Fukushi so I might be off in thinking the theme is Jittoku. To me the crescent moon implies a night scene of some kind. Do they have tea ceremony at night? This is a real question I have never study the tea ceremony in any detail.

 

I examined the inside surfaces of the sukashi but don't see any separation between the layers. In Tsuba An Aesthetic Study by Robert Hayes and Kazutaro Torigoye this is characteristic of the first two generations of Akasaka masters only. Starting with the third master onwards the school did not use this method to forge the iron plate of the tsuba. I was taking a look at the book Tsuba no Bi and found two examples by the Sandai Akasaka master pages 92 and 93. Both examples display a similar very thick rounded rim as my tsuba. No thickness measurements are provided for the two examples. I am going to check the two Sasano books and reply with any helpful information for the discussion.

[John A Stuart]

This moon, I believe is representative of a waning moon and correlates to older, mature and the ending of things. The moon is always there through day and night and may not be a temporal clue in this case. John

[Tanto54]

I like Arnold's approach of taking the most obvious meaning. I agree with Arnold that it is not Jittoku, but I also agree with David that it is not a tea ceremony (those motifs almost always include a tea ceremony implement which is missing here, and a tea ceremony can be during the day, so it doesn't seem the most obvious choice with the moon over the pine). Why wouldn't it be Takasago? It is probably the most famous Noh play. It has all three images from this Tsuba (broom, pine & moon) as prominent symbols. All educated samurai would have been very familiar with this play, and the play's imagery was (and is) often used in wedding and New Year ceremonies and on samurai paraphernalia. It would seem to me that Takasago is a most obvious possible meaning.

[seattle1]

Hello:

Thank you for your reply David. I wish I could answer the question about ceremonies in the evening or at night. I checked several books on the tea ceremony and even looked for candle holders in the huts, but found nothing.

I can only say that the ceremony itself tended to eschew light, believing that muted light was the most pleasing and appropriate. Some of the hut designs display considerable shoji screening, and so with a strong moon, it probably would do just fine.

I really am not making a case that it is meant to suggest a tea ceremony, just that it could and that the broom is probably not associated with Jittoku.

Cheers.

Arnold F.

[John A Stuart]

Although most chanoyu I've been involved with are during the day, just by coincidence, there are evening events. We must consider evening and night being conducive to it as well, after all the floating world was very active at night. Think, teahouses. John

[Pete Klein]

Try Dawn. Classic Rikyu Wabicha. There are references to this in tea journals from the period.

[Soshin]

Hi George M. ,

 

I think you are likely right. I was reading the Wikipeda entry for Takasago (play):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takasago_(play) and found that an alternative name of the famous Noh play is Aioi Matsu (twin pines). The setting of the play is a early spring evening which does make sense.

[Henry Wilson]

There is a famous tea house called the 残月亭, the name suggesting that the morning moon was appreciated during certain tea gatherings.

[John A Stuart]

残月亭 Zangetsu Tei. Based on Rikyu's Chashitsu at his Yashiki at Juraku. 残月 Zangetsu, morning moon. That's interesting. John

[Soshin]

Hi John S., Pete K., and Henry W.,

 

Thanks for the additional information really not sure about this tsuba in terms of the theme of the openwork design. It could be the Noh play Takasago or a tea ceremony reference or both. The rim display some fine iron bones. Here is a photo of the rim where I have a few highlighted with black circles as my focus was far from perfect.

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

A friend sent me some photos of some of his Akasaka collection. Sorry can't share any of this photos. He thinks my new tsuba is either third or early fourth generation master. To me my tsuba has a rounded classic koban shaped seppa-dai which is also characteric of third master Tadatora died circa 1707. His work like the first two masters were all unsigned.