friends or foes ?

[Bungo]

front und back of this tsuba shown..........

front......... the Big Cheese with attendant telling him something.

back....... bunch of Hojo dudes.

 

question........ obviously this is taken from the Taira- Minamoto war.

 

Is the attendant telling the Big Cheese there's a Hojo ambush ?

Or that's the Big Cheese's own army ?

 

Milt THE ronin

[Bungo]

more pics...........

[kusunokimasahige]

Me thinks it is the big cheeses army! dont think the Hojo things are sashimono, but archer shields. not very useful in an ambush.

 

more like: Dono, your troops are ready, the battle line is straight, we have the upper hand. or sth like that.........but then in classical Japanese of course

 

KM

[Mike]

Looks to me more like an ambush, since they are hiding near the tree, it is not shade they are seeking. Furthermore the big cheese doesn't have the same mon as that on the shields, so he is about to be knocked down. Mike

[S.Haugtredet]

The samurai infront of the horse, isn`t he kneeling to the samurai on the horse and pointing to his left...? So he might be told there are enemy forces ahead, or his troops are ready/in position.

I`ll stop at that and rest my vivid emagination from going any further

[Nobody]

I think that the hojo (maybe) dudes on the back are foes, because

 

1) they seem to be lurking behind the pine tree,

2) the big Cheese looks that he just stopped his horse to meet his attendant,

3) the attendant looks to point the direction of foes,

4) the big Cheese and the foes are located like confronting each other on the tsuba.

 

I think that the samurai in front of the horse is a scout and is reporting the ambush to his master.

[kusunokimasahige]

If that is the case, then it will surely be the story of the ambush of yoritomo, with the guys trying to pull him from his horse (have a ukyo-e of that one)

 

however i dont see any MON on the big cheese...

 

KM