Who was Lumir Jisl - and where are those tsuba?

Peter Bleed · May 16, 2020

Like (I presume ) many others of my generation, I own a copy of Swords of the Samurai: The Splendours of Japanese Sword Furniture by Lumir Jisl, as published in 1967 by Artia, Prague. It is a worthy little volume with a bunch of nice images of - well - "nice" fittings. These books were actively sold in the forerunners Amazon in the 1960s and 70s for just a couple of bucks. It is NOT the most embarrassing books in my library, but it just begs the questions, "Who was Mr. Jusl and where in the world (or Central Europe) are all those fittings he presented 50 years ago?"

Peter

Ken-Hawaii · May 17, 2020

Don't exactly have your answer, but he had a Ph.D. & lived from 1921-1969. His interests were focused on Mongolian archaeology and Mongolian, Tibetan and Japanese art.

CSM101 · May 17, 2020

I hope you mean this book. 63 pieces are shown but only 14 belonged to the author. The rest belongs to the National Gallery, Prague; Naprstek Museum and two other Museums.

If you want to know what happened to the private collection then I can ask. But it will take time to get an answer.

Uwe G.

CSM101 · May 17, 2020

Sorry, couldn´t edit the post

Uwe g.

Peter Bleed · May 17, 2020

Once again, NMB has done its duty! Thank you Ken and Uwe.

Indeed, I had no particular interest in the fittings that Dr. (!, I had no idea) Jisl presented, but I am interested in collecting and how stuff has gotten distributed around the world. How/when, indeed, did a bunch of Japanese sword fittings end up in regional museums of Central Europe? The answer is, of course, in essentially the same way that they ended up in regional museums in the US. In either case, I think the process of collecting is worth recording.

I will also take this opportunity to say that I believe that "collections" - both private and institutional - are about to undergo a phase of "collapse." And, if/when that happens, the objects in the collections will be at great risk.

Peter

Surfson · May 17, 2020

Peter, other than perhaps a bit of Covid depression, why and how do you think that collections will collapse? Although the market and esthetic perceived value of fittings has not gone up since the boom of Japan in the 80s, it really hasn't gone down either. The way of the world seems to be that when older collectors are separated from their things, they usually find new homes.

Peter Bleed · May 18, 2020

Robert you ask very good questions. Thank you. I think that the passing of the baby boom era, an epoch awash in stuff, will see reduced collecting, if only becasue people have amassed a great deal of stuff. We have kept it, organized it, and evaluated it to the point that I think it will be hard to keep. Furthermore, in the "digital age" the importance of material stuff will be reduced. The values and social conditions that let somebody assemble a "collection" are also likely to change or even disappear. Keeping all that stuff is also expensive and a lot of work, so I think families, individuals, and institutions will find ways of dumping their their collections. Did you see that the American Museum (!) is laying people off?

Peter

Steves87 · May 19, 2020

I see where you are coming from Peter, at this stage it does look like this is a possible scenario, I'd guess 70-30.

I'm young (relatively at 38) and have a lot of storage room, if you know of any museum collections needing to dump, I will take responsibility as caretaker. I am training my kids to follow too!