Choshu Scenic Tsuba

[rematron]

It's so true, Piers.  Regardless of the intended purpose of that 'sail/shade', that thing would catch wind.  I was trying so hard to find another example that I didn't stop to consider the appropriateness or implication of the design.  So again, staring me in the face, was another clue that the place was a mythical paradise.  Also, if it is a shade, it's not very utilitarian at that angle.  It would only provide shade at a certain position so the oarsman would need to constantly adjust the boat to keep the sun behind it.  And this shade would do nothing for rain.  But there's no rain in paradise... In paradise you can have the sunny open sky above you and still have shade at your back with the boat staying perfectly aligned.  I admit that when I saw the 'Three Mountains of Dewa' tsuba in the older thread, the composition is so similar to mine that I drew a parallel and began to try to justify the differences.  Another learning experience in the fascinating world of tosogu.

[rematron]

One last thing:

 

On the side so as not to distract from the original purpose of this post in getting a better idea of what I was looking at, I asked George Miller ( @Tanto54 ) for further information on the mei.  This was my last priority since the mei was furthest in my mind when I saw the tsuba.  I merely acknowledged that it had a mei and left it at that.  George was quite generous with his time and cross referenced three books: the Haynes Index, Wakayama, and Sesko's Signatures to narrow down the possibilities to three different Tomohisa circa 1800.  One of those three seems to be the most likely as it is noted that he typically worked on plate with Chinese landscape as the theme.  I'd like to give a big thanks to George here in this thread for his time.  He was kind enough to take photos of the entries in the books and I am now on an active pursuit of those books so that I may begin to do my own mei research and learn even more.

 

Thank you all who have contributed to my little quest here. 

 

Best regards,

Jeremy

[Torrez]

Thank you to all the contributors to this thread! I have a few Choshu landscape tsuba and have always wondered if they might've depicted specific scenes or even particular paintings.

[rematron]

Great collection, @Torrez!
 

Your sixth example has a striking resemblance in composition to mine.  The tea house is very much the same and placed between the same shoreline embankments.  And there also is the flag post up

near the temple. 

 

Your seventh example has that curvy sail/shade on the boat again. But this one looks more like a sail just because of the placement. 
 

Very interesting.  Thanks for sharing!

[Brian]

Lovely collection! I think the scenes were inspired by classic landscape painting, maybe Chinese style. Not sure if particular scenes, but probably intended to look like kakejiku of classic style.