Tsuba construction

[RobertM]

So I picked up the tanto tsuba of a fellow board member a few years ago.

Ive recently seen this design (without the filling) described as a rack for drying tuna?) This leads on to my question, have the voids in this tsuba been filled with I presume is lead?

[RobertM]

 

[GRC]

Hi Robert.

The motif is a drying rack for sea cucumber (not tuna).

The motif was popular during the Edo period and was a symbol of prosperity.

 

The tsuba looks like it has a one piece construction to me. (either carved then corroded in some areas, or more likely, it was cast and has multiple areas where "casting voids" can be seen and there are two "crevice-like" casting "splits" on the surface of the top cross-bar.

 

If what you are calling the "fill areas" have a different color (it's harder to tell with the lighting of the images), maybe they have a surface layer of silver overlay that has tarnished over time to have a more greyish look. 

[GRC]

I sent this image to Robert and he asked me to post it. 

 

Here are the areas that caught my attention as evidence for being cast.

Some areas, viewed on their own, could be viewed as old corrosion that had been completely removed at some point, leaving a pitted area.

But, thinking about all the highlighted areas as a group, it seems to add up that this tsuba was initially cast then finished by hand to remove any raised casting seams (leaving only the sunken casting flaws) and adding the silver surface treatment (if it is a silver overlay).

It's also possible (probable?) that the triangular punch marks that texture the lower areas, were done by hand as well.

 

Regardless of how it was made, this is a nice example of the namako (sea cucumber) drying rack motif 

[MauroP]

It's hard to judge from the pics whether the plate is just carved or perforated and then filled with gankin. If the latter is true probably the fillings are not iron, so it should be easy to probe them with a little magnet.

 

[Spartancrest]

I agree, every collector needs a good magnet! The work involved carving the voids is twenty times more than cutting the voids all the way through, so I believe Glen is correct when he says it is cast. Perhaps reworked? 'Broken' punch ishime finish.  I like it regardless! 

 

PS. Is the guard tapered or is it the angle of the photo?