Nice tsuba on Yahoo auction

[Surfson]

This tsuba just sold for a pretty high price on the Yahoo Japan auction site.  I quite like it, but can't tell if the Kanzan hakogaki attributes it to Matashichi.  It does seem to have a fantastic plate and a very elegant design (reminiscent of the default NMB logo!).  

 

[ROKUJURO]

It is a really nice one. I had seen it standing at 2.5 K, Probably not a MATASHICHI as I suspect those to go considerably higher.  

[Surfson]

I couldn't find the character for shichi, and figured it was not attributed to him.  It appears to be quite thin (3mm) and I get the impression it is pretty old though.  Another thing I like about this one is that the two wings have a different feather pattern.  

 

Who is credited with the first example of this design - is it Hayashi Matashichi?  I'm not sure why that sticks in my mind.  

[TETSUGENDO]

Yes Robert, Hayashi Matashichi.

 

-S-

[Hoshi]

I don't understand the appeal of these sorts of tsubas very well. These strike me as unoriginal productions from a popular template. 

 

1. It's a copy from an original design. There are a lot of them. 

2. the original design is excellent and the inventor deserves high praise. 

 

If the copy was in a way better executed than the original, I would understand the appeal. But I looked up the original maker and his work in this design is superior. 

 

What am I missing? 

[Surfson]

It's a good question Chris and applies throughout tosogu collecting.  Examples would be a Musashi design, or an eagle, a phoenix, a shishi or a dragon.  There are these themes that arise that are treasured in this art and artists talk to each other via their alterations in the theme and the form.

 

The early inventors of the stylized Goto shishi dog are being honored by the many, many emulations and modifications of their invention for centuries.  Art is basically a conversation and artists almost never come up with something new out of thin air. 

 

I think that I like this tsuba since it is a very, very early version of the form, that it seems to have a great hada and forging of the plate, and that the pattern of the feathers in the two wings are different, presumably based on what an actual bird may have done if it was preening under one wing and not the other. If you look at the  NMB one, it is virtually symmetrical, whereas the one in the auction is far from it.  

[Surfson]

Steven, do you have any photos or links to the very first version done by Matashichi?  

[TETSUGENDO]

Robert, here is an example by Hayashi Matashichi in the collection of the Eisei-Bunko Museum.  

 

-S-

[Surfson]

Thanks Steven.  That does look to be very close, but not identical, to the one that NMB uses.  Cheers, Bob

[TETSUGENDO]

Thank you, happy to oblige Bob.  Note the refined modeling, how lovely the work where the rim meets the cranes head is, it's far superior to the models mentioned here.

 

-S-

[Surfson]

It also has a brass eye!

[TETSUGENDO]

Indeed!  Also, look at the care taken with the taper of the line defining the outline of the feathers, the modeling of the rim, the shape of the cranes head and neck......wonderful.

 

-S-

[Surfson]

When was that tsuba made?  Just curious about the time of invention of the form.  The one I posted is also very subtle and elegant in the features you mention.