Today's catch

[GoldenDrachen]

Hello everyone

 

Got this one today. I hate those sneaky sellers who cancel auction if not happy with the price. I was so close to get for a fraction of the cost...but seconds till the end auction was cancelled and 10min later tsuba was relisted, for a fixed price ( lucky enough price tag wasn't too hefty)

Anyway bought this

For the sake of gaining experience, I will try to attribute it 

I am thinking this is armourer tsuba, Edo period. Motif, in my opinion, is snowflakes.

 

Looking forward to your comments

 

Thank you all in advance!

Regards

Vitaly 

 

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

I like it. Wonder why the blossoms have no centers

[Larason2]

I think the radial yasurime is usually yamakichibei, rather than katchushi. I also agree they are sakura blossoms. Nice piece though!

[Spartancrest]

Nice one Vitaly, I like the detail on the ategane! [I vote sakura too]

I have a "cobbled together" daisho with a similar open centre Mon(?). Mine only has the single motif with six round 'petals'(?) 

I find two distinct 'types' of these [1] Amida ishime-ji [crepe paper] where the sukashi is outlined and the seppa-dai are defined [I have approx 60 different examples on file] or [2] Amida yasurime where the amida-yasuri go all the way to the nakago-ana with no outline (niku). Two different makers or copies from another school?

 

An old thread here with Ko-sukashi amida yasuri the flowers have a centre.

 

[GRC]

Nice one Vitaly 

blossoms for sure, snowflakes have a different look compared to those sukashi.

Here's a little sample of the range snowflakes can take (from simplest to most complex):

 

and the radial Amida yasuri rays were done by lots of schools (this one is certainly not by Yamakichibei though).

Vitaly, I suspect your tsuba would likely get "binned" in with the Tosho or Katchushi as you suggested with your "early Edo armorer" attribution. 

 

Love the decorative sekigane "plugs" in the hitsu-ana.

 

 

[GoldenDrachen]

Interesting...

First thing: thank you all for the input! 

My foremost concern here was an attempt to date the piece.

When I was doing so, I found that old post ,  which Dale has mentioned above. Reading gave me the understanding that my tsuba can not be purely Katchushi one, nor the Umetada type, but something "in-between".  I thought: early Edo. 

Then the motif: I was confused by missing centers, and, as I am practically sure now, mistakingly identified them as snowflakes.

But my recently purchased book Kodōgu Gadai Jiten, suggest that Sekkabun ( I hope I got it right) usually hexagonal. 5 petals pointing at the flower origin of the sukashi.

So I would go along with "Sakura blossom" ...but why no center then? Could it be a kamon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spartancrest]

Found these two kamon but not the family/s they represent.