Interesting Nanban Tsuba (Small Sword Guard)

[Jussi Ekholm]

Well I'm not generally much of a topic starter especially about tsuba but I thought this one would be nice to share so that many might see this for the first time. I've never really been a big fan of Nanban items and never even gave them too much thought before attending to one Scandinavian NBTHK meeting some years ago which had Nanban fittings as one of the meeting themes and it opened my eyes for these. I am still not a fan of these but now I look these with bit different eye.

 

I've seen and handled some small swords and one interesting thing is the small sword guard - tsuba relation and small sword guards influencing some Nanban tsuba. And on my weekendly browsing I stumbled upon this: http://nihontocraft.com/Namban_Tsuba_.htm It has been featured in the KTK article by Fred Geyer and might be well known for tsuba guys but I thought it is very interesting for many of us.

[dominnimod]

Wait,so, are modified rapiers guards considered tsuba?

[johnnyi]

This  is a really interesting adaption. Its similar in a way to the half watch case for sale somewhere also adapted into a tsuba. Not to stray off topic too far, but  I've wondered if the European baldrick buckle or shoe buckle might be the same kind of thing, but as inspiration only  for the Musashi tsuba.?

 

regards, Johnnyi

[Ron STL]

So-called Namban tsuba have always interested me to some degree, if they are not just the run-of-the-mill mass produced version. Today, I have only a handful of fine examples in my collection Fred Geyer has a good number of these tsuba. The one you found that was made for a rapier is certainly worthy of study. Fred always has fine quality in his collection! Another source of study on these European-style namban was written by Peter Bleed a few years ago and published. I'm sure a Google search would find it for you, if interested. Ron STL

[Peter Bleed]

Indeed we have discussed this topic and I even posted a rather clumsy version of the paper that Ron mentions. It is somewhere in the recent NMB files.

I LOVE the guard that was referred to above.

Here are a couple of other "Japanised European guards"

Peter

 

[NLPathfinder]

The sword-guard on the right is similar to those made to order in Sri Lanka for the VOC. I found a close comparable for the carving in small sword garniture in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dual-system nakago-ana is a sign that these were produced for regions with different sword-tang cross-sections. There is documentation that the Dutch used weapons as gifts to Monsoon Asian rulers, and that they also used sword guards as greeting-gifts in Japan. There is also documentation that the VOC ordered weapons from Sinhalese workshops--even importing VOC-marked Solingen hanger-blades to be mounted in the Sri Lankan manner. Solingen blades were also imported to Japan where they were mounted in the Sawasa (Tonkinese) style by Nagasaki craftsman and then shipped by the Dutch for sale in the European market, Two such swords are also at the Met. My apologies for not visiting this fascinating site more often. I post regularly on Facebook at: 

 

https://www.facebook.com/Asian-Export-sword-guards-and-Nanban-tsuba-564035753684007/