Kanayama Tsuba

[Soshin]

It has been months paying for this tsuba and now I finally have it completely paid off. Here is a view of the Kanayama tsuba made circa the late Muromachi to Momoyama Period in the noonday sun through my skylights in my study. It measures 7.7 cm round and is 5.4 mm thick at the rim and thins toward the center. It was previously in my collection, and I was able to photograph it in detail. More photos and information will be up on the homepage of my website (Tsuba Otaku | Reflections of a Not So Empty Mind) the first of April. Feel free to discuss it politely and let me know if you have any questions.

 

           

[FlorianB]

I can see why You wanted it back - wonderful piece!

Florian

[DanielM]

Hello David,

 

This tsuba seems effectively very interesting, your photo shows very well the tekotsu.

What is your opinion concerning  the design?  it looks more or or less similar to a tsuba that was offered for sale by Gold Tier a few months ago ...I join a screen shot of it?

Thanks for your comments

Daniel

[Soshin]

Hi Daniel,

 

The overall finish to the forged iron plate which is casued by an extra heat treatment plate is called (yakite shitate 焼手仕立). I would agree the design is remarkably like my tsuba. Thank you for posting a photo. I was thinking the design of my tsuba and your posted tsuba is that of stacked rice cakes (mochi 餅) in stylized profile.

 

Thanks, NMB this topic allowed me to better focus my write-up about this wonderful tsuba.  

[ROKUJURO]

It might also be another SUHAMA theme which we had been talking about a while ago.

[FlorianB]

What about temple bell and rings, which frequently appear on Kanayama pieces?

 

Florian

[Soshin]

5 hours ago, FlorianB said:

What about temple bell and rings, which frequently appear on Kanayama pieces?

 

Florian

 

While temple bell or Bonshō (梵鐘) theme is a common theme on Kanayama tsuba with my specific example I don't think that is the theme. The stylized profile of a temple bell is different than what ia seen on the left and right sides of my tsuba.  Below is a photo of a temple bell example from Wikipedia. It is the large bell at Ryōan-ji a Buddhist temple in Kyoto and a photo of my tsuba for comparison purposes.

  

                              

[FlorianB]

Another suggestion: Mochi motif?

On the left and right side Kagami mochi, the other rings could be regular ones.

 

 

Florian

 

[Soshin]

Hi Florian,

 

I was thinking that originally as well in my original writeup after recovering it from my archive last weekend. The Suhama theme mentioned by @ROKUJURO is interrelated to mochi. I was thinking of mochi or suhama during New Years. I did come across this entry in Wikipedia about Kagami mochi (鏡餅, "mirror rice cake") as a traditional Japanese New Year's decoration.

 

Kagami mochi - Wikipedia

     

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Lovely tsuba, David. The kagami mochi theory is compelling. This is offered as a possibility, but when you decorate kagami-mochi, there is often something placed centrally on top. In light of this, the joins would not then look out of place.

鏡餅 飾り方 - Bing images

 

This reminds me of the eastern habit of adding smaller and smaller stones to piles on holy mountains, in shrines etc.