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Show us your nice gendai tsuba (and fittings and koshirae...)

Toryu2020

By Toryu2020
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Toryu2020 Grand Master

Toryu2020

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We have a thread for Gendai-to but not gendai fittings. I am sure there are some great pieces out there. I shall start us off with my latest acquisition, a daisho set of tsuba by the premier American swordmaker Keith Nobuhira Austin. Quite chuffed with this find as it fits nearly everything about my collecting and experience...

 

-t

NobuBox.jpg

Nobuwhite.jpg

nobuMote.jpg

nobuSho.jpg

  • Like 3
JohnTo Community Regular

JohnTo

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Posted

Hi Thomas

I wasn’t going to post this Gendai tsuba as I had already done so under a different thread, but as you have only had one reply so far I thought maybe I should post it again.

This large copper tsuba is inscribed Morihira (Yanagawa Morihira, 1899-1971).  I don’t like to claim whether signatures on tsuba are genuine, so many fakes about, but the tsuba does appear to similar in style to other works by Morihira that have appeared at auction (https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21101/lot/248/?category=list,  and Aoi Art, order number F21216), that is a copper tsuba decorated with gold and silver gilding, katakiri and kebori engraving, scratched gold kodzuka plugs and flower shaped tegane punch marks.

The shape of the tsuba may be best described as sumi-iri-kakagata (lit: notched in square). The front (omote) of the tsuba shows both a shishi and peonies, whereas the reverse (ura) only shows the shishi.  Interestingly, the shishi on the omote has a silver body and a golden mane and tail, whereas the combination of silver and gold is reversed on the ura.  The heads on both animals is copper. Shishi are often represented as playful creatures, but these two are muscular with a fearsome pose and the silver shishi has a head which looks rather like Hannya, the Japanese female demon.  The engraved peonies on the omote are coloured with silver and gold gilding and the petals are in a darker shade of silver.  The outlines are defined in katakiribori (half cut carving) and kebori (hair carving) and, particularly the silver, darkened to add extra tonality to the design.  The nakago ana has four 32(?)-petal chrysanthemum punch marks on each side, purely for decoration and the tsuba is signed on the lower right face of the ura Morihira.  There is also a single kozuka hitsu ana, filled with a gilt cat scratched plug.

Shishi are mythical guardian lions in both China and Japan and it is also the name given to a group of political activists (Ishin Shishi 維新志士) in the late Edo period who opposed the westernisation of Japan.  The peony is regarded as the king of flowers and in Japan symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune.  It is likely that this tsuba was made in the 1930’s when Japanese militarism was at its peak.  However, if this was the intention of Morihira then I think that he failed.  Instead of the shishi being fearsome macho guardians they appear rather camp (IMHO).  Possibly other potential buyers thought the same, which is why I was able to buy it cheaply in comparison to other Morihira tsuba that I have seen.

When this tsuba first came up for sale I had no interest in it and so it seems nor did anyone else as it was unsold.  Six months later it came up again and I wanted to buy something in remembrance of my nephew, Gary, who had died shortly before the sale.  Gary was very much an extrovert ‘in your face’ type of guy and I this tsuba reminds me very much of him.

Height: 8.75 cm, Width: 8.4 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.7 cm; Nakago: 0.4 cm, Weight: 254 g

Best regards, John

shishi1.JPG

shishi2.JPG

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Toryu2020 Grand Master

Toryu2020

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Nice one John 

"

The term "Shishi Jinjin" (志士仁人) is derived from the phrase in the fifteenth chapter of the Analects of Confucius, "Eiringuo," which means "to kill oneself in order to do benevolent deeds.

Mostly, the term refers to those who led revolutionary movements with the idea of the Emperor and expulsion of the barbarians."

 

Foo Dogs on the other hand...

 

"Guardian lions are referred to in various ways depending on language and context. In Chinese they are traditionally called simply shi (Chinese: 獅; pinyin: shī) meaning lion—the word shi itself is thought to be derived from the Persian word šer.[2] Lions were first presented to the Han court by emissaries from Central Asia and Persia, and were already popularly depicted as guardian figures by the sixth century AD.[3] Today the guardian lions are more usually specified by reference to the medium or material, for example:

Stone lion (石獅; Shíshī): for a stone sculpture; or
Bronze lion (銅獅; Tóngshī): for a bronze sculpture.
and less commonly:

Auspicious lion (瑞獅; Ruìshī): referring to the Tibetan Snow Lion or good fortune"

 

Please call me Tom and please keep those tsuba coming...

 

-t

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GRC Experienced

GRC

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Posted

not mine, but happened to stumble across it online...

signed on the omote and dated on the ura side: TSUCHIYA TAKACHIKA, 1921 (I think the translation also said sometime "in the tenth month" of that year)

He was described as a 6th generation smith of the Tsuchiya school

904858343_TSUCHIYATAKACHIKAdated1921-6thgentsuchiya.thumb.jpg.826fe61cbcb2e85b258c76b9ca4a4322.jpg2045902308_TSUCHIYATAKACHIKAdated1921-6thgentsuchiya2.thumb.jpg.8c6d56aef88b9922c47c5770272ea21c.jpg

 

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Baba Yaga Mentor

Baba Yaga

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, GRC said:

not mine, but happened to stumble across it online...

signed on the omote and dated on the ura side: TSUCHIYA TAKACHIKA, 1921 (I think the translation also said sometime "in the tenth month" of that year)

He was described as a 6th generation smith of the Tsuchiya school

904858343_TSUCHIYATAKACHIKAdated1921-6thgentsuchiya.thumb.jpg.826fe61cbcb2e85b258c76b9ca4a4322.jpg2045902308_TSUCHIYATAKACHIKAdated1921-6thgentsuchiya2.thumb.jpg.8c6d56aef88b9922c47c5770272ea21c.jpg

 

That's a very interesting date after WW1 ended. I'm not into war time, but that caught my eye. That's a keeper. 

Toryu2020 Grand Master

Toryu2020

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Noshu Sakamoto Ju Issei saku

 

Hakogaki - Tetsuji Sukashi Kawari-gata

Showa Kinoe Tora 49 11 gatsu hi

Noshu Sakamoto ju Issei

 

A terrific piece.

  • Like 3
Kanenaga Community Regular

Kanenaga

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Posted

Thanks for the translation, Tom. 

And congratulations on the Keith Austin Nobuhira daisho pair.  I never met him, but heard many stories. A real piece of history.

  • Like 1
Soshin Grand Master

Soshin

Posted
Posted
On 8/25/2022 at 12:17 AM, Toryu2020 said:

Naruki Issei - tsuba for a bokken 

 

 

Thanks Tom and Les,

 

Some reason Naruki Issei name is "ringing a bell" in my mind. :idea: Does anyone have other examples of Naruki Issei work? Did/does he primarily work in iron?  

  • 2 weeks later...
Ed Veteran

Ed

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Toryu2020 said:

Ed - what are the kanji for Tomoaka? That first one appears to be signed Toshiyuki...

Tom,

Sorry for the confusion, don't know what I was thinking this morning, must have been still half asleep.  I have corrected them.

The first one, yatsuhashi is Toshiyuki, Tamaoka Toshiyuki.

The second one, rake and pine needle, is by sword smith Matsuyama Seiken.

  • Like 1
Ed Veteran

Ed

Posted
Posted
On 8/15/2022 at 12:06 PM, Toryu2020 said:

We have a thread for Gendai-to but not gendai fittings. I am sure there are some great pieces out there. I shall start us off with my latest acquisition, a daisho set of tsuba by the premier American swordmaker Keith Nobuhira Austin. Quite chuffed with this find as it fits nearly everything about my collecting and experience...

 

-t

NobuBox.jpg

Nobuwhite.jpg

nobuMote.jpg

nobuSho.jpg

 

I am envious.

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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