Which Motif?

[vajo]

Is this fern or clover?

Or something else?

 

 

[rematron]

My guess would be fern. 

[FlorianB]

The jagged leaves reminded me first of kiri-leaves sometimes made by Akasaka, but the shoots won't fit. So at least I agree with the fern option.

 

Florian

[Spartancrest]

Just using the silhouettes I can see the Kiri leaves motif and there is no doubt that the other part of the design could be conventionalised bracken shoots, though Sasano sometimes offers up "Ivy scrolls" in his description of similar Kyo-sukashi designs. [Not that I am proposing Chris's guard is either Kyo-sukashi or Nishigaki.]

[FlorianB]

That’s the design I reminded. Another one here with peaky leaves:

copied from this site: https://tosogucollection.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/iron-tsuba-with-design-of-paulownia-leaves/

Akasaka and Higo often produced similar designs.

 

However, this means Kiri leaves AND warabite?

 

Or another proposal: kiri leaves and kiri seedlings like this one:

It is said, it is a very fast growing tree.

 

Florian

[vajo]

Hmm now I'm total confused. 

I was sure it was clover late shoami or owari. Then a friend says fern. Now you bring me to kiri leaves.

 

The one is a wakizashi tsuba 6,8 cm x 0,4 cm.

Its part of an showa era daisho (mixed blades).

 

The last two days i worked on the wakizashi koshirae to fix some ding and dongs. Cleaning from dirt, smoke, fat and years of hanging somewhere....

 

 

[FlorianB]

No point to get confused.

I like those stylized designs, because there are different interpretations possible.
Which is right, which is wrong? At least it doesn’t matter because today we can only speculate about the maker’s intention.
Try some research on the suggestions above and find the answer by yourself.

 

BTW my Kiri leaf/seedling proposal is a nice idea, but it doesn’t correspond to Japanese iconography.

 

Meanwhile I think about matsukawabishi and warabite, often found on Shoami Tsuba - sorry to confuse You even more!

 

Best, Florian

[Bugyotsuji]

A Japanese friend made a wonderful iron tsuba with various puzzling sukashi.

 

Some weeks later, I remembered to ask him what they represented.

 

"Oh, nothing really", he answered, "just whatever I felt like."

[vajo]

You mean some kind of warabite like that Florian?

 

So it would be 2 different warabite designs?

 

 

My westerner eye sees a plant and

I'm sure it is some kind of plant.

 

But you are right it could be something total different.

[FlorianB]

Chris, the term warabite (i.e. young bracken sprouts) is used on different designs as a convention.

Your example could be claimed warabite, personally I would prefer karakusa (arabesque).

 

Fern sprouts in nature look like these:

 

Some warabite designs taken from an old book with patterns of cloth:

 

Here’s a Tsuba of mine, note the different number of forks:

 

This vertical beam with rounded tips is also called warabite:

 

And some other examples from tsuba.info (https://tsuba.info/higo/) with warabite design (or drawer handles on the left, temple gong on the right side...):

 

Best, Florian

 

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[vajo]

Thanks a lot Florian for the new view.