Help identify a Tsuba?

[ZombieTarou]

Hey guys!

 

I just joined to ask about this piece I found when renovating my attic.

I currently live in Japan and bought a house constructed in 1830.

 

I found this Tsuba laying on a support above the ceiling. I haven't found any identification. No markings of maker, etc.

The condition isn't great, which makes me wonder how authentic it could be.

 

It does look to have been plated at one time. It looks and feels too well manufactured to be authentically handmade.

 

I am quite a newbie when it comes to 日本刀, but I am going to study about it. I was hoping to find something. Just didn't expect this.

[Bugyotsuji]

Welcome, Josh. Interesting story. It looks ok at first glance, but it won't make your fortune. Is it iron under a magnet? What are the dimensions? Many metal objects were hidden during WW2 to avoid handing them over in the roundups.

 

Three open 'sensu' fans, but the rest is puzzling. Japanese gardens with small shrubbery and raked sand?

[Spartancrest]

Hi Josh, and also welcome from me.

The design is a variant of the "eight fans" design [far right] - obviously only three in this case. The one you were lucky enough to find looks to have some "Gomoku-zogan" mixed in with the swirls possibly representing 'snow banks' [Gomoku Zogan is a technique in which the iron base is largely covered with fragments of fine wires (brass, copper or rarely silver) gathered in irregular groups and brazed or welded in place, the whole being finally flat polished.] I have some examples here the one in the middle has the same gomoku-zogan pattern but is otherwise plain, the first has a crepe pattern with some pine needles. I have seen various types of these guards some having only one fan others five etc. The three fan and the eight are the most common in outline but as you can see, the backgrounds can vary.

Yours is, as Piers has pointed out, not particularly valuable but still worthy of a good clean and preservation, that swirl background is very distinct and unusual.

You might get some preservation/cleaning help from other threads on NMB. Good luck with it 

 

 

 

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/29984

[Bugyotsuji]

Hey, great finds, Dale! 

[mareo1912]

Interesting story and finding, though I have to admit I am almost equally impressed by the colour palette of that rust 

 

[ZombieTarou]

Hey, Guys! Thanks for the Information!

I wasn't planning on selling it anyway, its kind of special to this house, so I am planning on trying to preserve it as best as I can.
I knew that removing the rust/articulate without understand it would be a loss.

and Yes, its Iron, 85mm wide, with looks to be leftover braising on both sides. The Swirls are definitely different.

What would you say the timeline for a design like this? I guess that's kind of hard to place...

Thanks a bunch, Dale! Its really cool to see the techniques. I will look into how to preserve it... 
Its been sleeping quite lonely above the ceiling, and now I am going to frame it in the house somewhere.

Thanks again guys! I will be lurking around to figure more stuff out!

 

J

[Spartancrest]

Larger fans in a similar design, once again the background is different and in this case only six lobes rather than eight.   https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/285084071372

[Spartancrest]

Yet another example of the fans design in a current auction. https://www.jauce.com/auction/l1077595652

The 'Ji' [background] is once again decorated differently to the other examples. [Heianjo style?]

[Spartancrest]

I found these two today - the first is missing all the 'sticks' of the fans, these would have been inserted separately and they have since all fallen out. The other looks like it was a modern casting.