A Few Doubts About An Heiajo Zogan Tsuba

[zanilu]

Dear all NMB members

 

This Heianjo Zogan tsuba have been recently been added to my collection.

Its dimensions are; width 93.4 mm, height 93.4 mm, thickness at seppa-dai 3.8 mm, thickness at mimi 4.2 mm.

 

 

I am seeking more information and your opinion about some points:

 

1) The meaning of the sukashi design. It looks like a kind of plant, bundle of grass or mon.

2) The zogan decoration is made up of vines and of a kind of flower that have at the ends of its petals what looks to be aoi (葵) leaves. This too is a mon or and actual plant/flower?

 

 

3) The mimi is slightly raised by hammering. It is correct to call it sukinokoshi mimi (鋤残耳)

4) The mimi also shows regular equi-spaced slanted lines all along the circumference. They seems to be intentional. Any of you have ever seen such a feature? What could its meaning be?

 

 

5) The web looks ishime-ji (石目地) to me, is it right to call it so?

6) There seems to be a mei of just the character two (ni - 二). The two lines are not accidental, and not scratches. They are neat and deeply cut. What is your opinion? Could this be a mei?

 

 

From the look of it I would say Early Edo given its thikness and the doughy appearance of the metal. I would like to have your opinion on this point too.

 

Sorry for the pictures, this is the best I could do at the moment.

 

Best Regards

Luca

[MauroP]

Ciao Luca, nice tsuba indeed. The surface of iron plate is quite corroded, so maybe it could have been migaki-ji in origin, and the inlays, now protruding a little, were intended as hira-zōgan. The slanted grooves on the circumference configure a nawame-mimi (縄目耳). The two strokes in the mei looks too much clear-cut, and possibly were carved much later than the time the tsuba was made.

[Gunome]

Hello,

not a common heianjo work.

My first impression is that it is a katsuchi tsuba with later inlay adding.

[zanilu]

Ciao Mauro and Sebastien

 

Nawame-mimi was my first impression too, but I wanted some confirmation from more expert collectors.

The piece does not look much corroded to me. There is little rust in the recesses of the hira, in the pictures it looks more rusty than actually is when observed in direct sunlight. I do not think that there was much corrosion also because the edges of the brass inlays are rounded as in suemon zogan. I would expect that if this is hira zogan with a lot of corrosion the edges of the inlay would be more sharp and also there should have been more loss of inlay. Actually the loss of inlay is small.

 

Luca

[edzo]

Hi Luca, I am interested in the Mon as well. You requested to know if anyone else has seen it so I am attaching a photo. Its called a Heienjo zogan but I'm not sure. In this example the inlay is hira zogan as can be seen. I was thinking Yoshiro but am very confused.

Thanks for your post, EdF

[Chinook]

Hello, Luca, your tsuba has the same characteristics  as a tsuba I have. Mine is 81x81mm, iron with kage sukashi and brass hiza-zogan. the one I have came with Tokubetus Kicho Token with a attrabution to the Heianjo school. Some folks feel these were very early Heienjo. I will try to post some pictures, it's been a long time.  I hope this helps.   Mark P.

[Chinook]

I hope this works, I am getting old.

[zanilu]

Thank you Mark.

Very nice tsuba, it will help a lot my study.

 

Luca

[zanilu]

Sorry ti resume such an old post but I would like to add an update.

 

Edward the decoration of your tsuba seems to be decorated with melon flowers (take a look at http://varshavskycollection.com/collection/tsu-0324/).

 

For my tsuba the design of aoi leaves looks a lot like a variation of the following kamon:

 

With six aoi leaves

 

From Hawley Mon: The Japanese Family Crest page 6.

 

Banshū Mutsu Aoi (Banshū Province 6 wild ginger leaves)

 

Kishū Mutsu Aoi (Kishū Domain 6 wild ginger leaves)

 

With 5 aoi leaves

 

Yo Ken Itsutsu Aoi (small swords 5 wild ginger leaves)

 

This are the latest updates.

 

Regards

Luca