'WEDDED ROCKS' TSUBA

[Guest Simon R]

Hello again,

 

Posting my very modest collection of four tsuba on the NMB a few days ago actually re-galvanised my interest in the subject and prompted a new purchase which just arrived in the post.
It's nothing particularly notable - probably another Aizu Shoami piece - but I was drawn to the carved, Shinto-themed subject of Meoto Iwa (夫婦岩, the Wedded Rocks).

https://www.Japan-guide.com/e/e4303.html

BTW, the flash has made the tsuba look a little 'oily', but I can assure you that it looks drier in real life.

 

[Spartancrest]

[Guest Simon R]

9 minutes ago, Spartancrest said:

Very nice representation of the same subject!

Thank you!

 

I have a few original Utagawa Kunisada prints on the walls but they are all kabuki actors. (Sorry for the awful reflections on the glass but these photos were taken 'on the hoof' just now in reply to your post.)

[Spartancrest]

1 hour ago, SRDRowson said:

(Sorry for the awful reflections on the glass but these photos were taken 'on the hoof' just now in reply to your post.)

Me too! I have six of these "Beauties of the Floating World"  - my camera just ran out of batteries #*#*#!

Added one like this single example decorating a wall in our "Granny flat" I had to find a similar image on the net since my camera wants to play up! ####

 

Did you notice the Kunisada image has the taller rock on the opposite side to the one on your guard? One image must have gotten mirror reversed at some stage?

 

[Guest Simon R]

25 minutes ago, Spartancrest said:

Me too! I have six of these "Beauties of the Floating World"  - my camera just ran out of batteries #*#*#!

Added one like this single example decorating a wall in our "Granny flat" I had to find a similar image on the net since my camera wants to play up! ####

 

Did you notice the Kunisada image has the taller rock on the opposite side to the one on your guard? One image must have gotten mirror reversed at some stage?

 

Beautiful prints - thanks once again for sharing!

 

You are absolutely right about the positioning of the rocks. I just trawled through dozens of photographs and they're all taken from the same side as the print you showed and the kozuka.

(The closest I could get to a different angle is the one photo below.) I guess that my tsuba maker must have either sketched the rocks from the other side of the shore or reversed the image to fit the design of the guard? 🤔

[Spartancrest]

Still works - it is a very recognizable image.

This guard by Goto Hokyo Ichijo 1791-1876 has the same orientation as yours does. It must all depend on where you are looking from? But the design does fit better having the small rock on the left.

 

[Matsunoki]

I believe there is more than one set of these “wedded rocks” in Japan…..may account for differing perspectives?

[rematron]

@SRDRowson nice tsuba!  I love learning new Shinto stories.  It's one of my tsuba collection points.  Collect all the stories. It's sort of like a two-in-one of Japanese collecting.  Shinto and tsuba, both distinctly Japanese. 

[DirkO]

I actually was playing with the idea to have a Meoto Iwa tsuba commissioned some years back, but in the end decided on focussing more on Sarutahiko.

 

Rope changing pics:

[Kanenaga]

Here's another tsuba example.

Bakumatsu period, unknown maker.