Sado Tsuba

[kissakai]

Hi

I'm trying to get my head around Sado tsuba but there is not much info available

If anyone has a papered or signed Sado tsuba or can attach an image I would be grateful

 

 

Grev

 

[Geraint]

Hi Grev.

 

I presume you've seen this one, http://nihontocraft.com/Sado_Toshisada.htm ?

 

All the best.

[Grey Doffin]

Here are 3 from my website, if that helps.

http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/search/node/sado

Grey

[kissakai]

Geraint is this a broken link?

Grey, I have saved the signed Sado tsuba but not saved the other two as I was only after signed/papered tsuba

[christianmalterre]

do throw a line to Cyrus!

 

i do remember he had a nice one once...

 

Christian

[Curran]

Hi Grev,

 

Referencing our previous side discussion and crossing with Grey's good link:

 

#1:  This is one of the Tochibata vs Sado Island shipwright iron twisted mimi ones I mentioned. 50/50 either way.

#2:  On of the more "Choshu" inspired ones mid Edo ones. Tsuba from Sado Island started long before "Sado Island" Tsuba.

#3:  A good example of the Edo goldmine boom years Sado Island tsuba that would have been called Myochin Mokume if it had been unsigned. See our previous discussion.

[Geraint]

Sorry, not sure what happened there, try this and go to sales, tosogu ans so forth.  http://www.nihontocraft.com/japanese_sword_home.html

[Curran]

For Geraint:

http://nihontocraft.com/Sado_Toshisada.htm

 

Another of the mid-Edo goldmine boom years Myochin clones.

[Pete Klein]

 

SADO tsuba...

[Brian]

Pete, why do I have a feeling that SADO of yours is just a prefix? :rotfl:

[Curran]

Pete, why do I have a feeling that SADO of yours is just a prefix? :rotfl:

 

 

 

Point to Brian.

I wish I'd thought of that one myself.

[Pete Klein]

Ok - ok - I knew it was a bit of a stretch...

[kissakai]

I have attached some notes about Sado tsuba. It would be nice to expand the PSD with more images and descriptions. In the PDF there are references to other Sado tsuba images but I don’t have these books so if anyone can add these images it would be a great deal of help with this project

 

Other information I’ve not found is how the wealthy lived on Sado Island did they bring their own cultural aspects, have samurai retainers as this will influence the making of tsuba

 

I’m hoping Ford may provide some information about were the tsuba iron came from and types of patina used and if there are any salient points a collector may recognise

 

These notes below are a synopsis of what I have found as the Sado history may help us understand their tsuba styles. Often quoted: great wealth brings great Art so there would have been a lot of money around especially in early Edo when gold and silver were found

 

It is said that people and culture of the mainland began to come onto Sado around the 8th century, when the whole of Japan was being formed as a country. The fact that there exist such temples as Kokubunji Temple (in Mano) and Chokokuji Temple (in Hatano) whose names are derived from the temples in the mainland shows that Sado has a very old history

 

Sado became an island to which criminals were exiled. It is said that many losers of political strifes were banished to Sado Island. In the Kamakura era the ex-Emperor Juntoku and Nichiren, the founder of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, were exiled to Sado, while in the Muromachi era Zeami, who produced Noh songs of the Kanze school, was banished to the island. It follows that those highly cultured people who had been sent into exile in old times and their attendants introduced the culture of the metropolis to Sado Island.

 

Gold was found in 1601 at Aikawa and the Sado mine at its peak in the Edo era produced around 400 kg of gold a year (as well as some silver). The small settlement of Aikawa quickly reached a population of around 100,000 and the mine closed in 1989.

 

In 1672  the Nishimawari naval route was opened in the South of the Island and became a main stop on this major naval route in the Sea of Japan between the Kansai area and northern areas of the archipelago.

 

It is believed that Sado's culture started as an amalgamation of the cultures of various parts of Japan, but has incorporated it’s own unique influence.

For the most part the island is said to have been under the strong influence of the culture of the Hokuriku district and Western Japan. There is a theory that Sado's population during the 18th century reached 200,000 at its peak (100,000 people lived in the Aikawa district alone where the gold mine is located). The aristocratic culture of metropolitan Kyoto which exiles introduced, the culture of townspeople which merchants and sailors brought in and samurai culture arrived from Edo and took root on the island. Because Sado is isolated from the mainland, these cultures continued to stay on this island, and influencing each other, grew into Sado's unique culture.

 

Sado School Tsuba.pdf

 

[Davidarmy]

Here is one

[kissakai]

Thanks David any idea where this tsuba is.

[Geraint]

Hi Grev.

 

Here's another papered example, you'll need to scroll down a bit.

 

http://www.sanmei.com/contents/en-us/d1.html

 

Hope this link works.

 

All the best.

[kissakai]

Hi

I think I'm unlikely to get any more info on Sado/Sado Island tsuba so for ease of viewing I've put all the images on the attached PDF and my tsuba are the two on the last page

The detals are better shown on the previous PDF

 

Is anyone going to suggest whether my two tsuba are Sado, another school or are unknown

Someone needs to get it started to get a conversation going

 

Sado all images.pdf

 

 

Grev UK

 

 

 

[johnnyi]

Hello,

 

I would also like to understand this school a little better and see some early examples.

 

Elliott Long has done some excellent research which can be found on the Shibui Sword site. Briefly, he states that most of the early work you see is the product of Kazariya Katsukage (Sado Sanzaemon Katsukage) who worked on Sado Island 1675-1750.  

 

Mr. Long goes on to write that most of these tsuba were in the open work style "of Owari, Akasaka, and Kyo-Sukashi". They were bolder and thicker however. (the pictured tsuba (ex Haynes, Long) measures 8.1 mm thick.)

 

In the 19th century two descendants of Sanzaemon worked on Sado Island mostly in the flat plate style. These two were the first and second Toshisada who we are probably most familiar with due to many of their tsuba being signed. (They also did Mokume).  After the Toshidas Mr. Long writes that the style of the school was mostly a more ordinary flat plate.

 

Here is an example of an early work by Sado Sanzaemon Katsukage.  As he was exiled to the Island of Sado it is tempting to imagine the freedom of the waves being restricted by a ring of solid iron as an inspiration for this work

 

Kind regards,  JohnI

[Curran]

Hi John,

 

Please see Grev's October 9th post and download the .PDF at the end.

 

Mr. Long is largely just posting the translations of the Torigoye book by Bob Haynes. It is an excellent bargain buy book from the Northern California Club, though a little dated from current thought.

Also, the Sado story is a bit broader than just the mid Edo period gold mine related bubble.

I would say Grev's writeup renovates and extends the original Torigoye writing. The Torigoye section on Sado Island tsuba is  _confined_ to certain limitations as a small part of a much larger book.

 

The Torigoye book is one of the best general primers for those interested in learning about tsuba. Yet the numbers of pictured examples are very limited.

I've meant to do a writeup of Grev's Birmingham Museum book because I was surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the work when I bought it and read it.

It is very much like the Baur Collection Book, but the tsuba are much more a cross selection of the ones a collector will come across available on the market-   instead of the deep pockets ones Baur accumulated with aide.

With Torigoye book and Grev's Birmingham book as a very good indexed guide, a new collector can build a fast mental database of what-is-what and visualize some of that which Prof. Torigoye describes mostly in words and more limited early 1960s black n white photography.

 

The two books would set most people back a whopping $75 combined and be a good foundation as we wait for the Tosogu Classroom #2, 3, 4, and 5 to be published in the next two or three years.

Less than 10 books for less that the price of a decent tsuba will be an extensive guide to most kodogu.

 

Ps. [nice Sado Island example you posted].

[johnnyi]

Thanks Curran, Torigoye is a good book and I have it and have read it, as well as Vol. 1 of the "Classroom", but I wasn't aware that Grev's museum book was available yet. I will order it.,    Anyway, to the point of my post, it was in relation to  Grev's question on whether his two tsuba were Sado Island School. I don't know, and can only restate what Mr. Torigoye has said, and provide another example to view of mid-Edo work.  In other words, regarding my previous post please consider it a "bump"

 

 

Regards,  John

[b.hennick]

Here are two more Sado Island tsuba that I can add:

 

[Curran]

Thanks Barry.

 

That top mokko gata signed one really nails what I think of as Sado.

[johnnyi]

 What is written on the left?

 

 

 

 

Johni

[kissakai]

Thanks Curran for your kinds words re my book

I agrre about Barry's mokko tsuba and I also think Johns earlier image shouts Sado

Well building up a few more good images and I'll look out Torigoye book

[Geraint]

Dear John.

 

Are you referring to the top tsuba that Barry posted?  In which case; right hand side, "Sashu no ju" and left hand side, "Toshisada" I believe.

 

All the best.

[johnnyi]

Hi Geraint,

 

Yikes, I glanced too fast,  thanks. 

 

 

Great to know  "Toshisada" is on Barry's tsuba on the left side, so I guess that tsuba  was  made by the pupil in the style of his teacher Sanzaemon?

 

 

regards,  John

[Davidarmy]

Thanks David any idea where this tsuba is.