This strange little demon: Tsuno Daishi

[Rodenbacher]

Nothing to discuss here, just a little bit of information, which may be helpful for some of you.

 

Maybe you wondered what the little demon figure is you will see here and there on a Tsuba or Kozuka. I am currently staying in Nikko, Japan and in the Rin'noji Temple I found the following information:

[Rodenbacher]

There is a fine example of a Tunodaishi Tsuba in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston: 

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/11301

[Steves87]

The Birmingham has one in their collection, this is a partial shot from Grev's book

[FlorianB]

Sorry to be a know-it-all: The correct name is Tsuno Daishi 角大師 (horned grandmaster).

 

Here's an elder thread with examples of this fellow:

Best,
Florian

[Rodenbacher]

1 hour ago, FlorianB said:

Sorry to be a know-it-all: The correct name is Tsuno Daishi 角大師 (horned grandmaster).

 

Here's an elder thread with examples of this fellow:

Best,
Florian

That's correct! I changed the Title of this topic, thank you very much, Florian! 

[DirkO]

This one in Kishu no Tosogu  is described as being the flight of a waterbird. Which ties in nicely with the geese of the OP. Could this be the same design, albeit a lot more stylistic in approach?

[SteveM]

This one looks like a stylized tomoe (巴) 

 

https://glyphwiki.or...ki/u2ffb-u5df1-u4e28

[DirkO]

Funny you should mention that! I think they actually consider just that in the description - but then decide on it being the flight of waterfowl.

[Nobody]

8 hours ago, DirkO said:

Funny you should mention that! I think they actually consider just that in the description - but then decide on it being the flight of waterfowl.

 

The text does not say the flight of a waterfowl but an immigrated waterfowl on the river or lake.

[MauroP]

No. 1 – My recently acquired tsuba with an old tokubetsu kichō paper; attribution to Echizen school and described as folded bamboo (oritake sukashi tsuba - 折竹透鐔).

No. 2 – Described as Tsuno Daishi sukashi tsuba (角大師透鐔), attribution to Ōno school.

No. 3 – Tsuno Daishi no zu tsuba, attributed to Akao school from a well known Japanese blog (https://blog.goo.ne....c75e22236e977277602d).

No. 4 – Subject described as bamboo object (take chōdo - 竹調度) and very precisely attributed (albeit mumei) to Kishū jū Sadanaga in “Tsuba: Ishō to Waza no Bi” by Hayashi Eiroku, p. 88.

Already mentioned here above is another similar tsuba reported in “The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Tsuba collection” by Grev Cooke, p. 94, attribution to Shōami school.

So what’s really depicted in these tsuba? Maybe a bamboo talisman representing Tsuno Daishi? Still looking for answers on the subject (no hope to know which school produced the tsuba...)