Looking For A Word

[Grey Doffin]

Hi guys,

I've been proofing future voumes of Fukushi's Tosogu Classroom as translated by Markus Sesko (see my post in Shows and Events Forum) and Markus asked me for an English word for the metal between 2 sukashi elements.  There must be one (we have words for everything) but I can't think of it.  What would you call the metal left when 2 sukashi are opened next to each other?

Grey

[Geraint]

The ground perhaps?

[ROKUJURO]

I would simply call that the plate (or TSUBA blank, if it is related to a new manufacture of a TSUBA).  

[hxv]

How about "residual element" between two sukashi?

 

Hoanh

[Brian]

I would just call it the bridge between sukashi elements.

[Curran]

I could only think to call it "positive space" in contrast to ma (間) or negative space.

 

However, Ma (same character as the signature of Hazama tsuba, with their intense use of positive and negative space) isn't necessarily the absence of material such as transparency of sukashi.

Silhouette is more about the outline of the form rather than the actual form itself.

 

Probably Markus' neighbor George is going to come up with the best word, if anyone can.

[Tanto54]

I think that Curran's "positive space" is the best choice because that is the common term used in many disciplines for this concept (e.g., architecture,  2D and 3D art).  Using positive space (along with negative space when you are describing a sukashi tsuba) makes it very clear whether you are talking about the metal that is left (positive space) or the void that is cut away (negative space).  Those terms make it easy to discuss the image whichever way it is depicted (especially those wonderful sukashi tsuba that have images in both the positive and negative space).  Here are some interesting non-tsuba images that illustrate the point (and one that even Stephen can appreciate...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grey Doffin]

I used something like "the plate between 2 sukashi" but I was looking for a one word answer.  I'm sure there's a word for it but it probably is quite obscure and closely tied to a specific craft: no one will know the word even if I found it.

Thanks guys,  Grey

[Peter Bleed]

What we are talking about here is an

interstice

google it.

And if you need help with pronunciation remember that famous poem

An amorous girl named Knapp

Had pimples all over her map

But in her interstices

There lurked a far worse disease,

For there she supported the clap.

 

Peter

[Stephen]

     

[MauroP]

In Italian the right definition is "margini del traforo", so margin, edge or border may be the right word?

Mauro

[Pete Klein]

How about 'ji sukashi elements'?

[myochin]

Why not simply use the word "ita" ?

 

Paul

[Jean]

If someone could post a drawing of what we are lookng for in term of word, it could help....

[Brian]

I guess they mean these...the areas between cutouts..

 

[Ford Hallam]

In Brian's example I'd call those parts ribs.

[Jean]

Thanks Brian, could it be border or edge?

[ROKUJURO]

What about strip, bar, or ligament?

[Brian]

Ribs works for me...the parts that secure everything together.

[Grey Doffin]

Ribs work for the tsuba in Brian's example but not so well for the sukashi tsuba below.  Ita doesn't work because it isn't English.  The word I'm looking for has to be easily understood by anyone, whether beginner or old pro, who reads the book.  I'm beginning to doubt there is a word in English; something like plate between the sukashi is as well as I will do.

Thanks all,  Grey

[John A Stuart]

The space between positive and negative sillohuettes (formed by sukashi in tsuba, but, not just in this artform) in Japanese artwork is called 間 'Ma" which means interval or space. John

[Brian]

I would just go with ground. You start with the ground metal, and cut away. What is left is still ground?

[Ford Hallam]

the positive elements/space of the design is how it would be described in graphic design terms.

[Peter Bleed]

I think we may be working too hard on this. The English word used to describe the intervening space between design elements is "interstice". It is a technical terms but it is in common use. I was serious in recommending it, and I apologize if my contributed limerick set a poor tone. I think this is the work that Grey was looking for.

Of the others that have been presented, "MA" (as in "tokonoma") might be appropriate - AFTER IT HAS BEEN EXPLAINED.

Peter

Humor on this sword forum

runs the risk of upsetting decorum.

Seems serious word collectors

can be irony neglectors.

Relax. If you've got beers, pour'em!

[Mark S.]

In model building, parts on the 'parts tree' are attached by a 'sprue'.

[Mark S.]

Pillar, post, spoke?

 

I think I am tending toward "spoke" as in "spoke of a wheel".

[Greg F]

If not ribs maybe bones or skeleton.

 

Greg

[SteveM]

fretwork

[Stephen]

HAVE we asked Ford?

[kissakai]

Land?

As an area between to spaces