Tsuba Picturing A Hollander

[BIG]

Hi all,

A Hollander theme on a tsuba...

more examples?

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3253037?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Best Regards

[docliss]

Dear Peter

 

Attached is an image of a small tsuba featuring a Dutchman and his dog, in a detailed iroye of shibuichi, copper and gold.  With a copper face and wearing a bizarre costume, the figure carries a bow.  The tsuba measures 6.3 cm - 5.8 cm, is koboshi-gata, of polished sentoku and with a slightly raised mimi.  On the reverse is a landscape, with a plank bridge across a katakiri stream.  It is inscribed HIROYOSHI with kao (H 01449.0).

 

Murakawa Hiroyoshi, working in the town of Mito in the first half of the C.19, was a student of Uchikoshi Hirotoshi.  This figure is an imaginative image of a gaijin as seen in the port of Nagasaki in the early C.17, and was presumably copied from a contemporary print of that period.

 

 

The tsuba was beautifully repatinated by Ford Hallam in 2008.

 

John L.

[Kurikata]

Herewith  is a signed Tsuba (Seal Tou-U / Yasuchika) . On an iron ground, this tsuba shows an elephant and a nanban-jin (foreigners) carved in Takabori, and inlaid with gold, silver, pure copper and an alloy of copper and gold. Size: 6 ×4.7×0.5 cm / Weight: 78 g

[IanB]

The author of article published has raised a few points of interest. Gouldleer was a quite important import by the VOC and seems to have been popular with the armour makers of Kaga. I have a mid Edo period Kaga dou having the front covered with a sheet of it painted with acanthus. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam display a wall covered in identical leather and have the original mould in which it was made. Numerous Kaga helmets have their peaks and fukigayeshi covered with this variety of leather and another which they gilded and sometimes painted with dragons in red lacquer..

The complete armour mentioned was in fact a diplomatic gift from the VOC to Tokugawa Hidetada and was originally covered in gilded silver. In the 19th century it was burned in a fire and sold off, finally becoming part of the Royal Armouries' collection where it is now on display. The only other European armour that seems to have been imported were cuirass and open helmets. The latest I have noted being one in Hirado museum made from elements of two Dutch pikeman's armours of about 1630. This would accord with them being part of a gift from the Dutch to the Matsura daimyo when they were forcibly moved to Dejima in 1641. Another part of this gift would be the tanto made from a German cavalry sword blade made in Solingen and again in the Royal Armouries' collection.

Ian Bottomley

[Brian]

Excellent and interesting info as always Ian.

 

Brian

[BIG]

Dear John and Bruno,

 

enjoyed that extraordinary images/themes and Fine works; Great repatination work !!

 

Ian int. Story and Info, is the Tanto a Former discussed aikuchi ?

 

Best Regards

[IanB]

Peter,  Yes it is. It surfaced in the UK during the 1930's and then appeared in the ToKen exhibition in Oxford in the 1960's before coming up for sale in auction. It is now a prize in the Royal Armouries. We also have the armours given to King James I (and VI) and one given to King Philip II of Spain. Quite a significant slice of the diplomatic action between Japan and Europe.

Ian Bottomley

[Justin]

Here is one of my tsuba. Mito school. Not sure if Dutch or Portuguese.