Ko Tosho Tsuba theme

[Japan2112]

While at the Chicago show last week I bought or traded a few iron tsuba. Here is one I particularly like - Tokubetsu Hozon tosogu to Ko Tosho.

90 mm dia x 2.5 mm thick in really good iron/steel. Under magnification a galaxy of nie in the plate. My guess middle Muromachi. What is curious is that the two pair of linear elements are cut very differently in size. The walls are similar in age,

 

I know I have seen this motif before, but can someone refresh me with what the sukashi represent?

Thank you,

Mark

[MauroP]

 

霞 - kasumi - haze (though no idea why)

 

[OceanoNox]

One traditional representation of clouds is horizontal bars with rounded edges, interconnected with each other. This may be what is hinted at here, but then I am not sure why the bars would be vertical. One possible answer is that the sukashi in old tsuba is positioned to not weaken the structure (I may have read it in Helen C. Guansaulus, Japanese sword-mounts in the collections of Field Museum, 1923).

[Spartancrest]

You can read all about it here - Glen has compiled a great resource on the subject.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

There is a type of 'mist' in Japan, especially during the rainy season, that seems to waft and fall like curtains of drizzle.　

Perhaps when it has become the Mon 'pattern', though, its actual orientation ceases to matter? 

霞 - Bing images

 

And just as an excuse to take a break from the task at hand, here are three sets of hyoshigi sticks.

 

[Bazza]

Piers san wrote:

> There is a type of 'mist' in Japan, especially during the rainy season, that seems to waft and fall like curtains of drizzle.　

 

I have read that the nukame hada of Hizentou can be described as 'mizzllng rain'.

 

An English source:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4wltytTwXR73XKR3DXq1VDh/mizzle-and-smirr-13-british-words-and-phrases-for-rain

A misty drizzle. The term is commonly used in Devon and Cornwall to describe a mixture of fine drizzle and thick, saturating mist or fog. Although mizzle might seem like a clever portmanteau combining mist and drizzle, it likely derives from the Low German miseln or Dutch word for drizzle, miezelen.

 

Also Nurie san's book:

https://studyingjapaneseswords.com/2018/07/14/29main-seven-areas-of-sinto-sword-part2/

Hizen swords have "... Very fine Ji-hada (surface), sometimes called Nukame-hada."

 

and Markus Sesko:

https://nihonto.com/sixth-generation-tadayoshi/

"Two types of jihada are most commonly found on Hizen blades.  They are the konuka-hada (rice grain) and the nukame-hada (misty drizzle).  These types of hada consist of extremely tight mokume that has become known as the distinctive “Hizen-hada”.  "

 

I see this when I look at my Omidaijo Tadahiro katana (nidai).

 

BaZZa.

[Curran]

Here I simply thought they were scroll weights.

A fancy dancy pair here:

https://www.bukowskis.com/en/auctions/E168/lots/898261-a-pair-of-Japanese-scroll-weights-early-20th-century

 

They are always in pairs, and they are always in the Japanese and Korean dramas when someone has got to pen a scroll.

Especially when it is anything governmental.

 

A tsuba that implies you are literate AND might be from the government.

Fairly scary back in the day.

 

[Japan2112]

Thanks everyone - I was thinking kazumi and after the great read still so - or scroll weights (Curran).

Great article! Posting my question has really brought some scholarship to the front for all.

 

Mark