Ito - Sukashi

[Baka Gaijin]

I have often marvelled at the fineness and regularity of line produced in Tsuba with ito sukashi.

 

Question: How did they get such a fine and controlled piercing?

 

I've been told various tales over the years, but none of them seem to fit the bill.

 

e.g.

A London Nihon-To dealer once told me that the designs were cut larger and hammered tightly to a spring steel shim which acted as the spacer, the tsuba would later be heated and upon expansion, the shim removed.

 

A Sotheby's Rupert said that Ito sukashi was produced when a series of small holes were drilled and a thread covered with Diamond dust was used to cut the design.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

[Brian]

Malcolm,

I will find out the details a bit later, but I believe it is done using a soft wire such as copper, and an abrasive dust (not diamonds)

The abrasives set into the soft wire, and a repeated sawing motion cuts through the metal. The dust can be added while sawing, and will embed into the cutting wire while working. I believe it is actually quite effective.

Will add to this a bit later once I confirm.

 

Regards,

Brian

[Thierry BERNARD]

Hi

 

I was wondering the same question!!!

[Bugyotsuji]

Me too!

[Brian]

I chatted a bit to Ford and looked in my references, and it appears that the exact methods aren't well publicised. However the theories come from what was available and known at the time. This makes it likely that these methods were used, but without any concrete proof. It seems likely that they first cut the initial tiny hole. They had the tools to do this. Then some form of thin copper, silk, horsehair etc was used together with a fine abrasive such as carborundum and maybe laquer, and a sawing motion would do the cuts. While this was labour intensive, we already know that the Japanese craftsmen didn't concern themselves with speed or ease of manufacture. So if it took 2 days..then so be it

If anyone has any further info or theories, I would be glad to hear them. The "insert spacer and hammer to shape" idea is highly unlikely though, so they were definitely cut.

 

Brian

[Rich T]

And what are the thoughts as to when this technique originated ? out of interest.

 

Very early Edô jidai

 

 

Rich

[Ford Hallam]

Although there doesn't appear to be any physical evidence for the use of the wire ( or string) and abrasive compound technique in metalwork in Japan it's generally accepted that the precursor to piercing saw blades as we know them today was some sort of stringing technique.

 

With string, a glue like lacquer, would have held the abrasive in place while if you use copper wire the grit tends to embed itself in the softer metal. I'd imagine a lubricant, oil say, and a regular addition of abrasive would have been necessary.

 

We know from very accurate analysis that this is exactly how jade was cut for at least couple of thousand years BC.

 

I would suggest that the technique would have been known to early craftsmen in Japan. We also know that chisels were regularly used to pierce metal.

 

Rich, I'd say your tsuba would more easily have been cut out using chisels. The thread technique would be slower I suspect and so not have offered any real advantage. I'll have to do some re-creative experimentation sometime, with this wire/thread method.

 

It may be that a lot of early pierced tsuba were cut this way but we only really take note of these very fine ones because it would be quite difficult to do today using a jewellers saw. It might actually be easier using the old technique....I'll let you know.

 

regards,

 

Ford

[Pete Klein]

Hi -- If you look at the sukashi you will see there is a lead-in ramp-like angular cut to the opening. This is from the chisel. To my knowledge almost if not all early sukashi tsuba were made in this manner with the use of filament cutting technique as a later addition where an awl could have been used to initiate the opening. I feel it is important to understand that all of the fine carving you see in menuki was done with a chisel so doing sukashi on a tsuba would have been relatively easy for these craftsmen who were master carvers. If you find examples of Bamen Tsunemasa's work (late eighteenth into nineteenth century) you will see thread thin sukashi but the example I used to own still had the angular cut initiating the sukashi. (Unfortunately I no longer have an image of the piece).

[raaay]

Ford

 

I don't no much about Tsuba manufacture ,but can you cast your mind back to one off the

Token meetings in London when Kenji Mishina San came over with sword smiths/ tsuka maki/

habaki makers etc.

 

I had a conversation at the exhibition table of one of the tsuba makers, he lifted up a tsuba and positioned it in front of a small portable lamp which then highlighted dozens and dozens of microscopic Ito Sukashi details.i asked politley how hell did you do that ! he produced what i can only discribe as microscopic wires like strands of human hair and said he had used these wires like using a fret saw technique once it had been holed !

 

I then asked the question how long did it take you to complete the work,

he said 2/3 hours every night after work and 5/6 hours on sat/sun over a six month period

 

 

Yes i was frightend to ask the cost of this "tsuba" before any one asks .

 

best regards

ray

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Ray,

 

I do remember...the saw blades you describe are/were standard Jewellers saw blades, albeit the finer ones. I use the 2 finest ones ( 6/0 and 8/0) for cutting out 0.5mm thick material for very fine inlays. I think the ones used for the tsuba you describe were 2/0 or 3/0. The bigger the number the finer the blade size. As far as I know the blades favoured by craftsmen in Japan are all namban nowadays ...can't think of a Japanese brand either.

 

regards,

 

Ford