Catfish Net Sukashi Tsuba

[sabi]

Well, sort of

 

For those of you not familiar with the old Zen riddle and painting, it simply asks; how do you catch a catfish with a gourd? There is a technical answer to this, but it's also been suggested that there was no correct response and it was just a bit of ancient silliness.

 

I recently picked up this tsuba as I thought it would make a great study/collection piece. Old iron is my favorite and couldnt pass this one up! I found the design to be very pleasing yet strong, the workmanship appeared good and it also looked to have a bit of age to it.

 

I was able to get some pictures together over the past few days, it's been pretty dreary here and that's my preferred light to shoot iron tsuba.

 

This tsuba measures 6.9cm tall, 6.95cm wide and is .5cm thick at the rim, which is kaku mimi konishu. It displays fine granular tekkotsu and the nakago and kogai hitsu ana are fitted with copper sekigane. Motif is a Buddhist manji symbol in the form of four hyōtan, or bottle necked gourds. Both popular images within Zen Buddhism and the lowly gourd was even adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a battle standard, to which he would add one for each victory.

 

The sukashi has a fine tsuchime finish and while it gets heavier in some areas, the whole plate is silky smooth to the touch. Patina is rather blackish and gives off subtle flashes of chocolate brown and purple tones depending on the light.

 

Looking at the overall workmanship, design and construction, I believe this piece to be early Edo (1650) at the latest. It does give off a strong tea culture vibe to me, and I could see this being late 1500's work. That is pure speculation of course, I certainly don't know enough to state that firmly.

 

I have a couple ideas regarding the school , but for now I'm enjoying taking my time studying before commiting to one in particular. It does show flavors from a couple... The return of my Sasano silver book that is currently on loan with a friend will be much welcomed!

 

I haven't posted in a long time but have been quietly lurking here and there. This is my first acquisition in months and I wanted to finally contribute again!

 

Hope you all enjoy the pics and I'll be sure add to this thread as my study continues. All discussion is encouraged and greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks for reading!

-Evan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[johnnyi]

I had been admiring that tsuba, or one very much like it, for a while now. If you like symbolism which you obviously do, you have a beauty there. (the gourd really gets its just due in early Taoism, which is the root of Zen anyway, and worth investigating)

 

John Irwin

[Steve Waszak]

Evan,

 

Nice tsuba.  Really good to see a fine early iron guard here.  My initial thoughts would be Owari, as the motif, the symmetry, and the rim style all speak to Owari sukashi.  Probably early Edo, judging by the finish (little to no bold tekkotsu) and the kogai hitsuana.  Good pick-up, Evan.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

[Brian]

Fine looking tsuba.

[sabi]

John, thank you very much! I haven't gotten to Taoism yet, any reading you can recommend?

 

Thank you Steve! You have shared some wonderful tsuba here and I wish I had the coin for your Honda clan guard! That's quite a beauty.

 

My initial thoughts on this piece are pointing me in that direction as well. This motif is used a lot in early Shoami work but the iron, styling and strong seppa dai are classic Owari indeed.

 

Thank you Brian! Glad you enjoy it!

[johnnyi]

Hi Evan.  For the gourd, if you want to start at the "beginning",  I don't think there would be any better reading than "Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun) "  by N. J. Girardot. Its a long intense read, but rewarding. 

 

For the Tao, others can probably give you better suggestions than I, but besides starting with the basics; "Tao Te Ching" (I  like Hinton's translation best), "Chuang Tsu, the Inner Chapters", and maybe the book of Lieh Tsu (translation by A. C. Graham is okay) you might want to accompany all of them with Confucius and Mencius  to give you a feel of the culture when Lao Tsu and Chuang Tsu were writing. 

 

Good luck and have fun with it, and again, cool tsuba!

 

Regards,  John Irwin

[sabi]

Hi Evan. For the gourd, if you want to start at the "beginning", I don't think there would be any better reading than "Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun) " by N. J. Girardot. Its a long intense read, but rewarding.

 

For the Tao, others can probably give you better suggestions than I, but besides starting with the basics; "Tao Te Ching" (I like Hinton's translation best), "Chuang Tsu, the Inner Chapters", and maybe the book of Lieh Tsu (translation by A. C. Graham is okay) you might want to accompany all of them with Confucius and Mencius to give you a feel of the culture when Lao Tsu and Chuang Tsu were writing.

 

Good luck and have fun with it, and again, cool tsuba!

 

Regards, John Irwin

Ah that first book seems like a great read for sure! Even has a gourd on the cover!

 

Thank you for all of the wonderful recommendations, Tao Te Ching has been on my list for awhile but I've read so many opinions on which translation to get that I never seem to pull the trigger.

 

-

 

Back to the tsuba; I was able to get some shots of the rim today along with a couple straight on in direct sunlight to show the wonderful surface work.

 

The tekkotsu are actually more globular than granular. There are a couple small granular spots but the bigger ones are very irregularly shaped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sabi]

One last photo to add to this thread; had some good sun and was able to capture the purplish tint this guard gives off in certain light.

 

 

 

 

I've been toying with the idea of submitting this to one of the NTHK's stateside shinsas. I think it could do pretty well.

 

I hope you all are enjoying the weekend! If it's not your weekend, keep at it!