Signed "nanban tsuba"

[Peter D]

Hi,

 

One of my fields of interest is Asian trade relations and their effect on material culture. So naturally I am drawn to "nanban tsuba".

 

I'm working on an ongoing article on rare signed pieces that help draw a picture of who produced what, when.

https://www.mandarin.../signed-nanban-tsuba

 

If you have any interesting signed nanban tsuba that you would like incorporated, let me know. I want to make it as comprehensive as I can.

 

One thing that caught my attention was the incredible similarity between Hirado Kunishige and some works of the Ichinomiya school in Kyoto. I currently maintain two hypotheses on this:

1. Works from Hirado Kunishige made it to Kyoto on diplomatic and trade missions, and local workers copied their unusual style faithfully.

2. Kunishige was trained in Kyoto and maintained ties with his former school. In the 18th century, Kunishige was Hirado's only known maker. Who taught him the craft?

 

Hypothesis 1 is the most straightforward but leaves the question of his training background unanswered.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the article.

 

-Peter

 

[Brian]

Fantastic work, thanks Peter.
If you want to allow a pdf to be shared here, I'd be glad to host it, but understand if you want to keep it on your site. Thanks for sharing!

[Winchester]

Not sure if this would qualify but please feel free to use if it helps. Thank you 

[pcfarrar]

I've got a Jakushi tsuba signed " Kizaemon Jakushi"  presumably the 2nd generation.

 

NBTHK for some reason didn't see the feint signature and papered it to Nanban.

 

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Great article Peter

[vajo]

Fantastic article. I enjoyed it. Thanks Peter.

[Peter D]

Thanks!

 

On 11/11/2023 at 3:11 PM, Brian said:

Fantastic work, thanks Peter.
If you want to allow a pdf to be shared here, I'd be glad to host it, but understand if you want to keep it on your site. Thanks for sharing!

 

Sure, be my guest. I do update my articles when I find new info, so it could be the site will be more elaborate in a while.
But I have nothing against you sharing it here in PDF.

 

@Winchester very interesting! What do you think the signature says? From the carving, it could be one of the Yagami makers.

 

It's interesting that they didn't see the signature on the Yakushi. I also have a papered Nanban tsuba with Western script all over it and no mention of it on the papers. I am like, guys, isn't this obviously a notable feature?

 

-Peter

 

 

 

[Winchester]

Hi Peter, Thank you for your kind note. I personally believe it is one of the Yagami makers based on the carving and quality. 

 

In my opinion, it looks better in person than the photos I am able to take.

 

If you click on the images, you can enlarge them. I'd be happy to try and send more detailed photos...as I do not know what the signature says and would appreciate any help in solving the puzzle.

[Spartancrest]

I have noted this design is described as "Asian Export". Similar ones have been seen on the Mandarinmansion web site. But as far as I know this is the only signed version out of 25 of this design that I know of. I wonder who made it?  [I own eight versions]

[vajo]

Dale i don't know if the chinese or vietnam are master in niage patination but i would say that tsuba is Japanese made. Could be hizen work.

[Spartancrest]

15 minutes ago, vajo said:

I would say that tsuba is Japanese made. Could be hizen work.

I don't disagree with you Chris, but I am going on this description taken from an old article from Mandarin Mansion. As well as Shibui Swords & Tsuba who advertised the same sword guards. 

"An interesting sword guard of unusual form. It is an eight lobed design like most Vietnamese guards of this shape tend to be. The washer seat is of typical Japanese form, but this form was also copied in Vietnam, mostly in the 17th century. It has an opening for a by-knife, but again such by-knives (kogatana in Japanese) were also adopted in Vietnam. The reason for this strong Japanese influence on Vietnamese arms was considerable immigration from Japan to Vietnam due to social unrest in Japan. The Japanese were not welcome in China, where they were regarded as pirates, so those who were good enough sailors pressed on to Vietnam where they settled and started new lives. Some master-less samurai found jobs employed by the Dutch VOC and other European traders.
Around the washer seat is a five-pointed blazing star, then a stippled background made with a round dot-punch, and the border consists of eight shapes best described as drawer handles reminiscent of European work. These can also be extremely stylized clouds in the Chinese fashion. The whole effect of the decoration feels like it is mimicking tooled leather. A very interesting piece, worthy of further study."  MM.

 

"A couple of mystery pieces. The numbers six and eight are auspicious in Buddhist iconography. The drawer-handle motif is a common enough device in Asian decorative arts. The central flower might be read as a stylized lotus, but the nanako-like stippling is a curious feature on an iron guard. Tekkotsu exists in the rim of the smaller of the two. Both are relatively thin, carved wrought iron plates, not cast, Nanban guards some times copied Iberian leatherwork. (Portuguese tooled leather). I suspect this may be the effect the makers of these pieces were trying to achieve. At an antique arms show recently I saw an identical piece lying on a table. The owner told me that it had been made by a member of the Yagyu family in 1928!"  SS&T

 

From my own experience the 8 lobed are one of the rarer designs. I know of only three in this type, there is one tate-kaku-gata, seven 5 lobed, seven 6 lobed and seven are maru [round] one of which is cut down from originally being 5 lobed and fitted with a fukurin. So what to believe? Are they Vietnamese, South East Asian or made in Japan? I can say that of all the ones I know of, the only one that had a hitsu as part of the original design is the eight lobed one shown by Mandarin Mansions and Shibui Swords & Tsuba - because it has 'niku' [carved outline] around the hitsu. All the rest could easily have had the hitsu cut in at a later time.

[Peter D]

I've always been puzzled about these, and since our initial research, a few signed ones have turned up that show these designs were, at the very least, also done in Japan by Japanese makers.

 

Who knows, it is Japanese, after all, just taking strong inspiration from elsewhere. Or, like some chrysanthemum guards, perhaps production took place on both sides. Nagasaki and Tonkin (Hanoi) remained in contact in the 17th century through a trade ship going back and forth under a Chinese flag, which was owned by a Japanese Christian convert who had changed his name to Paolo Rodriguez. He was briefly heading the Dutch VOC operation there. Sword guards appear to have been part of underhand trade done by crews on such ships.

 

What brought us to Vietnam was the lobed outline, which was very popular there, but then again, they probably got the idea from the Japanese. Another Vietnamese / Southern Chinese trait is the circular dot punch background that is common in China and Vietnam but not at all common in Japan. It is somewhat of a very lazy nanako. And lastly the "leafy" shapes of the star appear rather SE Asian.

 

The preliminary conclusion is that they are probably part of cultural exchange, but I'm not sure where exactly they fit in.

 

Does anyone know whether Hachiro Yamagami wrote about his? I wonder whether he related it to armor.

 

-Peter

[C0D]

To throw some fuel to the fire:
six lobed Kamakura-bori tsuba 

 

I feel that those lobed tsuba originally might have been simple tosho for kazuuchi-mono, which were also exported, then they got decorate by engravers, some of these maybe outside Japan and somehow made it back through the Dutch

[Spartancrest]

13 hours ago, Peter D said:

a few signed ones have turned up that show these designs were, at the very least, also done in Japan by Japanese makers.

One question remains - when were they signed?

More specifically were they signed after being imported? [if they were] Or could they have been signed later to aid their sale to foreigners? How do we ever know if they are signed by the original makers? 

[Peter D]

15 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

One question remains - when were they signed?

More specifically were they signed after being imported? [if they were] Or could they have been signed later to aid their sale to foreigners? How do we ever know if they are signed by the original makers? 

 

That's a good point you're raising. Worthy of further research.

 

Our handicap is how rare these are so its hard to gather enough data. But would it be possible to make a survey of signed ones and see if we can compare them with:
1. Known signatures of these makers
2. The work they normally did

 

And see how much it differs.

Makers could adopt various styles, but I noticed they rarely changed the fundamental ways in which they were trained and used to work.

[Peter D]

On 12/4/2023 at 4:42 PM, Winchester said:

I'd be happy to try and send more detailed photos...as I do not know what the signature says and would appreciate any help in solving the puzzle.

 

Thanks, yes, if you can! The second character does look like 廣 "Hiro" from Mitsuhiro (光廣, the name ofed by the three Yagami mainline makers. However, the first character is certainly not Mitsu. Could you make a picture perhaps in broad daylight? Perhaps we can figure it out.

 

@Spartancrest I looked into Haynes and there are a few 盛直 (Morinao) listed:

One is published in Joly; Shōshankenshū. Section M, 489.

Three more tsuba signed with that name are in Wakayama Toso Kinko Jiten, page 403, left, 5, 6, & 7. 

 

Does anyone have these publications handy? I don't have either! (I am looking for copies for my own library.)

 

 

 

-Peter

 

 

[Spartancrest]

On 12/8/2023 at 12:28 AM, C0D said:

To throw some fuel to the fire:
six lobed Kamakura-bori tsuba 

 

There is a discussion on Kamakura-bori lobed guards here - https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/26271-kamakura-bori-tsuba-under-a-question-mark/ -  from my point of view there is an evolution in the style, from rather plain to more complex - [something you would tend to expect] - complicated by a nostalgic look-back and resurgence of simpler pieces towards the end. 

One signed example.  Very similar outer design to the one [right] Posted Wednesday at 10:40 PM