Unusual iron tsuba?…

[Matsunoki]

Please could you help me with this tsuba? I have not encountered it’s like before and my knowledge on iron tsuba is very weak. It is mounted on a katana. The colour is darker than in the images and there is evidence of a fair bit of gold nunome zogan…..all now heavily worn. The design would seem to be stylised dragons on one side but the other side?? However the thing that confuses me  the most is that the whole plate is quite heavily dished. What is it?  Namban? Thank you for looking. Thank you in advance for all opinions! All the best. Colin

[rkg]

Colin,

 

That piece looks like one that would be binned as Hizen work.  The shape is called wan gata, and while I'm not seeing the meaning of the pattern on the back this morning, the  shape + design does look to be in the namban style...

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[Kurikata]

Hizen style tsuba.

[Matsunoki]

53 minutes ago, rkg said:

That piece looks like one that would be binned as Hizen work. 

Hi Richard….thanks for looking. By “binned”…do you mean thrown away ie poor workmanship? I have to admit, I don’t like it! Any idea of age? Thanks. Colin

[Spartancrest]

Consigned to the Hizen school - rather than binned? 

What's not to like? Wangata shape, nunome-zogan, star pattern ategane. It was all the rage at one time in Japan. I am glad you say it is darker in real life - the image is a little overexposed.

I think you have two options on the design on the ura - waves or clouds - depends on the dragons.

 

Gold clouds above the dragons heads on the omote.

[Matsunoki]

15 hours ago, Kurikata said:

Hizen style tsuba.

 

15 hours ago, rkg said:

as Hizen work

 

8 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Consigned to the Hizen school - rather than binned? 

What's not to like

Richard, Bruno, Dale…..Many thanks for sharing your knowledge. It’s not a “school” I’d encountered before. I struggle to like it …..not really sure why…….just doesn’t strike me as Japanese taste, which is not surprising if it’s classed as Namban!  I’ll try and find one I do like for the Katana it’s on. Best wishes. Thanks again. Colin

[Kurikata]

A similar one I baught a Sotheby's in June 1994... I kept it for its unusual format

[Curran]

I agree with Richard and others.

Consigned or Attributed are better word choice than Binned.

 

Wan shape, dragon, namban feel, sort of wood worker type carving, fair bit of nunome work     =>  Hizen work.

 

[GRC]

Wan-gata forms are rare for this particular style of Nanban tsuba carving and overlay. But I guess you could probably say the same for just about any wan-gata form... so I suppose that isn't saying much lol

What is definitely unusual though, is having a distinct, raised seppa-dai on the concave side of the curved dish.

 

Here are some other examples of "this style" of Nanban tsuba, but not in the wan-gata shape.

The first one below has more sharply defined carving than the typical, but they all seem to favor more blocky/bubbly, almost "childlike" or "folk-art" types of design (not too sure how else to describe it). 

[Curran]

Fair to say that at least 75% of the wan shaped tsuba are going into Higo or Hizen?

Maybe 85-90% of wan tsuba are covered if you say tsuba from Kyushu associated schools.

Wan shape => think Kyushu.   No surprise, given the origins of the idea for wan tsuba.

 

During the 2 years I operated as a small shop dealer helping to clear some estates, a nice Hizen wan tsuba was sold by me.

For reasons of objectivity, I wasn't suppose to buy anything directly.

When that tsuba came up again, I tried to buy it. Someone else got to it first.

Hizen tsuba are generally not highly regarded, but there are some very nice ones now and then.