Tsuba help please Myochin ??Mune????

[Matsunoki]

Please could I again ask for help, this time on another large armourers tsuba?

I believe I can see Myochin and Mune but the rest has me going round in circles.

Any help and comments re authenticity, age, Mei or anything else  will be most welcome.

Many thanks and all the best. Colin

[Iekatsu]

The second character is Masa 方
 

[Matsunoki]

  On 8/5/2023 at 10:19 AM, Iekatsu said:

The second character is Masa 方

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Thanks Thomas.

[ROKUJURO]

Colin,

I don't see this and the other one as armourers TSUBA. They have a TEMBO touch for me, but not KACHUSHI.

[Matsunoki]

  On 8/5/2023 at 11:49 PM, ROKUJURO said:

I don't see this and the other one as armourers TSUBA.

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Thanks Jean. I guess that makes the Myochin Mei on this tsuba a bit suspect?

Maybe a dumb question but is gimei as common on tsuba as on swords?…I know for sure that names like Konkan, Natsuo and Shomin are usually fake/school of……but iron tsuba???

[ROKUJURO]

Hi Colin,

GIMEI TSUBA may be found more often in valuable soft metal examples of later periods than on older iron TSUBA, but in my experience, you see them in all periods. This may have to do with the fact that in Asia generally, there is not the same sense of genuineness or authenticity than in the West. Making copies is not seen as dishonorable as we see it. This may of course depend on the intent of the copy.

The term KACHUSHI TSUBA means a style that is believed to have been made by armour smiths who also made tsuba. They used their common techniques and material so the older items (NANBOKUCHO ere) are mostly very thin (roughly 2 mm and even less) and can be quite large. They can have SUKASHI cut-outs of different shape and dimension, and many have a MIMI in differing sizes and techniques.

Later TSUBA in KACHUSHI style often have a thicker plate but similar SUKASHI. Generally, authentic KACHUSHI TSUBA are not signed. This has to do with the fact that a smith in former times did not see himself as an artist but as a craftsman. 

Your TSUBA are not typical for KACHUSHI style and probably made later. I see no reason to doubt the MYOCHIN signature unless a SHINSA panel says so.

[Matsunoki]

  On 8/6/2023 at 8:50 AM, ROKUJURO said:

I see no reason to doubt the MYOCHIN signature unless a SHINSA panel says so.

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Jean, many thanks for taking the time to enhance my meagre knowledge! Greatly appreciated.

all the best. Colin

[SteveM]

明珍宗友 Myōchin Munetomo, I think.

 

 

[OceanoNox]

  On 8/6/2023 at 8:50 AM, ROKUJURO said:

This may have to do with the fact that in Asia generally, there is not the same sense of genuineness or authenticity than in the West. Making copies is not seen as dishonorable as we see it. This may of course depend on the intent of the copy.

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This may warrant a whole new topic, but reading an introduction to a book by Akutagawa, I remember that in literature also, in Japan at least, "copying" was seen as an homage rather than plagiarism. I have been now wondering if the focus is less on originality and more on quality and execution of a design.

[Bugyotsuji]

Myochin Munetomo 明珍宗友of Himeji also signed with this alternate 知 ‘Tomo’, i.e. 宗知 according to Sasama in Shin Kacchushi Meikan, pp. 246~247.

[Bugyotsuji]

By the way Colin, you could put your tsuba in the thread below. If you do I'll follow it up with something semi-similar.