Ko-Shoami? Tsuba

[rkg]

Here's another tsuba from the last batch I got.  Its a bit of a head scratcher.  The tsuba was labeled ko-shoami, but I don't know...

 

 

The beastie measures 75.9mm (H) X 75.4mm (W) X 3.94mm (T, seppa dai), 4.32mm(T, max)

 

the piece's raised areas appear to have been created by etching the ji back, and the "nunome" is curious - it appears that a sheet silver was attached to the surface which was then crosshatched and then a bit of gold was applied to that here and there - again, I didn't shoot a microscope image, but here's a close-up showing the details...

 

 

So, should it be binned as ko-shoami, Hoan, what awa shoami, or...?

 

comments apprecated.

thx,

rkg

(Richard George)

[Rich S]

Richard -

 

That type of etched (?) raised work like the closeup pic I usually associate with Hoan although I don't usually think of "nunome" with Hoan. Nice tsuba but a bit of a puzzle.

 

Rich

[Pete Klein]

I'd say Kyo Shoami take off of the Hayashi Broken Fan motif.

[rkg]

I was wr... Not right.  after spending some more quality time with the microscope (and blocking one/the other gooseneck light to get some depth), I realized that what I thought was silver is actually just the patina being really really thin on the high points (can you say er, enthusiastic cleaning) - my bad... I'd add an edit to the above, but i seem to have gone beyond the magic time to to do that....

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[rkg]

it took me long enough, but here are some 360 image sets showing this piece - you can see how the patina is er, thin on the raised fans:

 

http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_group_front/shoami_shigenobu_group_front.html

http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_group_back/shoami_shigenobu_group_back.html

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)