Akao school tsuba signed Tatsutoshi

[PietroParis]

Hi All,

 

I apologize in advance if my posts about this tsuba in multiple sections of the forum are becoming a bit annoying, but being my first "serious" tsuba - and my second overall! - I am still quite excited about it...

 

 

Taking decent pictures without a professional camera and lighting appears to be devilishly difficult (at least to me), thus I refer you to the seller for crisper and better-detailed ones. A first question that I would like to ask is whether I should be worried about the few rusty spots on the ura side. They are not particularly ugly, and their visibility depends a lot on the lighting. Indeed, they did not even look red in the seller's pictures, but they can look as bad as this under natural light and from a different angle:

 

 

My first instinct would be to just do nothing rather than risk scratching or otherwise damaging the tsuba, but I am wondering if this might be the kind of "active" rust that will get worse over time. In that case, what would be the best course of action (possibly one that would not end up costing more than the tsuba itself)?

 

For the rest, the tsuba came with a NBTHK certificate, and I posted a question about it in the Translation section. The seller describes the design as "noshi" (i.e., traditional Japanese ribbons?), and translates the signature as "Efu-ju Tatsutoshi", which I understand from another thread to mean "Tatsutoshi from Edo".  In an old book on the MFA collection of tsuba that I found here, I read:

 

"AKAO SCHOOL (...) Tatsutoshi (early in the nineteenth century), a skillful workman, was famed for the fine temper of his iron and the excellence and originality of his designs."

 

I don't know how this judgment from 1908 has held up in the subsequent 111 years. Looking around the internet, I get the impression that this Tatsutoshi must at least have been quite versatile: his signature can be found on tsuba that look very different in style from one another, see e.g. this one from an earlier post on the forum... Is it possible that several artists used the same signature?

 

Thanks a lot in advance for any input you wish to provide!

 

Cheers, Pietro

[lotus]

Pietro -

 

Nice Tsuba. As for the rust, people on here typically use a piece of bone or piano key and gently rub the rust off. Works pretty well, the key is to use something that won't harm the patina. I googled around for other Tatsutoshi and found some which are similar in style to yours. As I recall Akao shares roots and styles of Echizen school which seems to apply to yours as well.

[PietroParis]

Hi Patrick, thanks a lot for your comments!

 

I'd rather not take risks trying to remove the rust, unless it's really necessary in order to protect the tsuba. Another helpful member of the forum advised me to "stabilize" the rusty spot by dabbing it with choji oil, letting it rest for a night and then removing the oil with a dry cloth. But it will take me some courage even to go for this softer approach (and first I need to find the choji oil!)

 

Cheers, Pietro

[lotus]

Pietro -

 

I completely understand, I had the same reservations before removing rust in this manner. I have done it a number of times and have yet to cause any damage to the patina.

 

Cheers!