Sukashi tsuba with a completely separate mimi

[GRC]

I picked up this tsuba a while back, partly because the construction seemed so bizarre.

The sukashi flower motif is one solid piece with the seppa-dai, but it is wedged in and pressure-fitted inside a completely separate mimi.

 

 

I've got a few questions:

1- How common was this, and does anyone else have any other examples?

 

2- Who made tsuba like this and WHY?

I can't figure out the advantage (if any) of making a tsuba this way.

The only thing that popped into my head was that maybe someone went to the trouble of replacing a previously damaged mimi that was original to the one-piece construction of the tsuba?

 

There are images of a similarly built tsuba (#121) in the Nakamura tsuba book. It is shown whole, as well as disassembled:

I suspect tsuba #120 is as well (shown below). The tips of the sukashi elements don't sit flush with the surface of the mimi and they all appear to be a little too "crisp" where they meet up with inner surface of the mimi.   

Also, I suspect the mimi was hit with a punch 3 times (roughly at the 10 o'clock position) in order to make a tighter compression fit to hold onto the tips of the iris flower... kind of like tagane-ato positioned along the mimi instead of around the nakago-ana.

 

Could someone be so kind as to translate the captions for tsuba 120-121?

Many thanks in advance 

 

[Spartancrest]

Glen, this looks like one recently discussed https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1053959631 This has no rim but obvious it should have. Anyone with a spare rim available? Is it an attempt to resize the guard or is it a repair?  Reduction rings = change the size of the rim thickness?

One of mine shows the rim was added and welded to the main body. The rim is slightly thicker than the rest of the guard - difficult to see but clear in hand.

[ROKUJURO]

Glen,

if you consider the work and time for the making of a SUKASHI TSUBA, I can only think of repairs in these cases. Also possible that something went wrong in the production process and the artist found this solution to save the workpiece.

Think about the early SAOTOME TSUBA with the famouus 48 spoke design of chrysanthemum. These were often not made in a one-piece construction. So the technique might have been well known.

My impression is that weld repairs might have a later date.