A Shibuichi Challenge

[Ford Hallam]

Greetings all

 

I wonder if I might engage the amassed memories and eyes of our membership here.

 

As part of my research into the origins of Japanese alloys I've been trying to get some more relaible datings on the shibuichi group.

 

I think I have a pretty watertight timeline established now so am interested in seeing how it stands up to the material evidence we have in the form of actual tsuba and fittings.

 

What I'm looking for are signed (authenticated) and/or dated pieces that we can reasonable identify as being of or containing shibuichi.

 

As a working hypothosis and target date I offer 1706. The earliest authenticated piece, signed and essentially dated, I have thus far sits at 1708.

 

Can you find a piece that was manufactured before that date that appears to contain shibuichi?

 

Thank you for your attention and indulgence.

 

kind regards to all,

 

Ford

 

[peterd]

Hi Ford

found this in ; Masterpieces from the Randolph B Caldwell collection. page158.

Mitsumi Koji,  

shibuichi menuki carved catfish

According to Haynes circa 1650 1700 but signed piece age 70 so do not tally.

Any one who has more information on this smith may help.

Will keep looking.

 

Yours

 

Pete

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Pete

 

thanks for that. I've got the book here but have to say they look like shakudo to me.  I can't claim to remember them but I did in fact see this collection when Patrick Syz  put in on.

 

Misumi Koji

[peterd]

Hi Ford, thought the same but bowed to inexperience

[Tanto54]

Dear Ford,

 

I believe that a very close look at the Yokoya School could help you pin down a start date.  The picture below is from "The Japanese sword and its fittings, from the collections of the members of the Japanese Sword Society of New York and the Cooper Union Museum ... [exhibition] catalogue, Mar. 25-May 28, 1966".  The Fuchigashira does appear to be shibuichi and is signed Yoko Soyo and attributed to the Shodai (died 1686-1691 depending upon the reference, but here it says 1691).  I can't see the signature very well, but I personally think that it may be a later Soyo.

 

[Ford Hallam]

Hello George

 

 

I hope I don't appear to be a killjoy but the point of my exercise here is to challenge much of the accepted 'wisdom' and to properly examin the evidence.

 

I will, in this case, cite Marcus Sesko's excellent compilation " The Japanese Toso-kinko Schools" " There are no signed works extant by the first generation Sōyo...."

 

And I agree with you, the kao appears to be that of the second Soyō, 3rd generation Yokoya master, b 1700

 

You're absolutely right to suggest that the Yokoya might be a starting point for shiubuichi considering that they were the originators of the machibori movement, so to speak. In reality, though, the breakaway from the classical/authorised styles took about 100 years and only really gets momentum around the start of the 1700's.

[SteveM]

Hello Ford,

I did a simple search for 四分一 and 室町 and Google gave me the following:

http://is2.sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp/fks-db/txt/20011.002/html/00113.html

#429 is attributed (but not signed, therefore it doesn't quite fit your criteria) to Goto Yujo. The clamshell is listed as being shibuichi.

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Steve

 

thanks so much for that input.  I have in fact been looking closely at Goto work. One might expect that if anyone one was using shibuichi early on it might have been them. On the other hand they demonstrated a remarkable tenacity to resist change for 18 generations also

 

But in the absence of a reliable analysis and verifiable attribution (and thereby date) I can't accept this example.  

 

All will be made clear and it's importance explained shortly

[Curran]

Thinking Ford is right.

I'd not thought on it before, but I cannot remember any pure shibuichi work pre 1700s.

Maybe an odd Hirata piece has something close to sort of dark or muddy shibuichi [i have a nidai tsuba and a f/k that Ford could probably best ID the mystery alloy]

 

The only thing I could think of close to having shibuichi is this early tachi tsuba. The fukurin and medallians are out of a copper+silver, but I think something else such as tin is in the mix.

It isn't shibuichi:  too sort of perma-white.

 

 

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Curran

 

I had noted those silvery/gun-metal looking tachi mountings, many of which are 14 and 15th century. But as you point out, they don't really appear to be shibuichi.

 

I'm not aware of any analyses of these tachi fittings as yet but silver was not at all plentiful in those periods so we may be looking at silver plated copper. Murcury gilding and silvering was well established by the mid 8th century. Personally I lean towards another contender that was commonplace in pre-Edo Japan, the high tin bronze known as Hakudo or sahari.

[DirkO]

How about Kuro Shibuichi? "This is a sort of shibuichi (literally „black/dark shibuichi“), where the copper is added additionally with arsenic, to achieve a more darker grey wich sometimes can also get a slightly green colouring. "
Was used early throughout several Higo schools.

 

In Ito's Nishigaki book there's also mention of a handwriting by Kanshiro II (1639-1717) from his study period with Goto Teijo (approx. 1653-1663) (. This also mentions Shibuichi. Looking at the actual working time for Kanshiro the 2nd, the time when he studied with Goto Teijo well predates the 1700's. However if it was made late in his active career, it might be later than your earliest date.

 

 

[DirkO]

And there's this extra hint to Goto school being the early adopters:

[Ford Hallam]

Thanks Dirk, those are intriguing details which I'll have to look into carefully now. :-)

 

The Gowland text you posted is well known to me but I've yet to see the two items he mentions. Does anyone know if they're published?

 

And the earlist piece I'm pretty certain about is in fact a tsuba by Nishigaki II, the moon reflected in paddy fields piece.

 

As for the kuro-shibuichi, where does that description come from? Copper and arsenic (added as shiromé) is essentially niguromé.

[DirkO]

The description of kuro shibuichi also comes from Ito's book, - the Nishigaki volume (page 28, annotation 23 at the bottom in the translation by Markus)

[Ford Hallam]

Thanks Dirk. I'll send Mr Ito a copy of my book then

[DirkO]

And there's this (written by Alexander Mosle - so maybe his collection might hold pieces with shibuichi from Tokujo? - don't have the Mosle book)

http://www.shibuiswords.com/gotoshirobei.htm

 

"The Author mentioned orikami. These originated with Tokujo, who, in fact, was the first to certify the work of his predecessor and sign them with their names, as well as being the first Goto to use Shibuichi."

 

And here's an attributed Tokujo piece:

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tsuba_001/e/e1c2dbd9df524b49621daaa8ba938a5a

[DirkO]

Just one more:

Gustav Jacoby wrote in his "Japanische Schwertzieraten: Beschreibung Einer Kunstgeschichtlich Geordneten"

 

Tokujo, der Sohn des Kojo, arbeitet weiter im Sinne des Vaters, doch ist sein Stil insofern verschieden, als er meist seine Reliefs sch"rfer und h"her geschnitten hat. Gern benutzt er bei seinen Arbeiten die Goldplattierung mit Durchreibung, womit er sehr interessante Effekte zu erzielen wei". Als erster verwendet er auch das Kupfer als Einlage und nach Ausspruch von Kennern auch das Shibuichi.

 

If my German is still up to scratch, it says that "He was the first used copper as a deposit, and according to connoisseurs also shibuichi" - his sources will have been the same as Mosle's. Pity he doesn't go further into this.

[Ford Hallam]

Thanks for those additions, Dirk. Perhaps an actual 17th century shibuichi kogai or kozuka exists. So far they're somewhat elusive though

[Curran]

Ford:  The silver medallions and fukurin of the tachi tsuba are not plated. I'd considered Hakudo, but highly suspect tin.

 

Dirk:  very good post. In considering a response to Ford- I was going to post a Tokujo kozuka, but I didn't think it was quite shibuichi as we know it.

As for kuro-shibuichi, yes that color description describes the nidai Hirata pieces I was thinking about. I'm not sure I have good enough photos of them, nor do I understand what is "nigurome" that Ford referenced. Time to go look it up. I don't want to sidetrack from the shibuichi discussion, but am curious about the odd alloys of early Higo (Hirata and Nishigaki (Kanshiro)).

 

Edit:  seeing that Tokujo kogai to which you linked, I'd like Fords comments on the shibuichi before I post the Tokujo kozuka what a similar metal was used for parts of the design. I'd thought it some sort of mostly silver alloy with a trace of something like nickle(?) to keep it tarnish free. I ruled against thinking it closer to shibuichi.

[Ford Hallam]

Curran, the kogai Dirk posted to looks like a shakudo spliced with silver to me. It's worth baring in mind that some of the lower quality shakudo type alloys are not quite a good solid black either. But until we have actual analyses of these items we can only be guessing.

 

Nickle is pretty much absent from pre-industrial Japanese alloys and where it is detected it's only the barest trace typically around 100th of a percent.

 

Nigurome is the starting alloy for making shakudo. It's an artificial alloy made of copper and shiromé, the byproduct of the de-silverisation of raw copper. It's main constituent is arsenic with smaller amounts of lead and silver. You know it as yamagane.

 

Kuro-shibuichi is shibuichi with added shakudo to darken it. What Mr Ito seems to be describing, and I don't know if he has analyses to support this description, can't be considered a variety of shibuichi I feel.

 

But this discussion highlights the need for much more scientific analysis of these pieces so that proper classifications can be made in terms of nomenclature. These compositional analyses may also enable us to begin to form a sort of chronology akin to dendrochronology.  Trace metals and particular ratios of elements reveal quite a lot in fact. But I don't want to publish the fruits of my research here just yet