tsuba signed myoshin.

[rodrig4]

bonbour.
could you translate these kanji because I can not decipher , ormis the first two kanji of this tsuba signed myoshin.
Thank you in advance and have a good day.

         RG.

[Bugyotsuji]

(*Myochin should probably be written Myōtchin, for wider international usage.)

 

土佐 Tosa is a region in the south of the large island of Shikoku. It was also referred to as 土州 Doshū.

土佐國住 Tosa (no) Kuni Jū (living in…)

明珍宗利 Myōtchin Munetoshi

 

 

[rodrig4]

5 hours ago, rodrig4 said:

bonbour.
could you translate these kanji because I can not decipher , ormis the first two kanji of this tsuba signed myoshin.
Thank you in advance and have a good day.

         RG.

on the other hand what place this blacksmith occupied in the scale of knowledge and knowledge of his art .
had a special place or was it a blacksmith among many others.

[Bugyotsuji]

Myōtchin armorers spread throughout Japan, making katchū, kabuto etc., and tsuba too. It was a huge proud network that went on for centuries, and there are still some active today. They grandly wrote their own history.
(I know the present representative of the Himeji line for example, who is actually making Nihontō swords.)

 

One of the Myōchin lines served the rich Tosa Han under the Yama-no-Uchi Daimyō family in Shikoku. Although they were far from the centre of power in Japan, they had their own high standards and traditions in Shikoku. Possibly looked down upon by mainland artisans(?). How good was each individual smith? How good is your tsuba? To gain understanding and appreciation we need to read the materials available, and handle tsuba. I have a couple of Shikoku Myōchin tsuba myself, one from Tosa like you, and one from Takamatsu.

[Jake6500]

10 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Myōtchin armorers spread throughout Japan, making katchū, kabuto etc., and tsuba too. It was a huge proud network that went on for centuries, and there are still some active today. They grandly wrote their own history.
(I know the present representative of the Himeji line for example, who is actually making Nihontō swords.)

 

One of the Myōchin lines served the rich Tosa Han under the Yama-no-Uchi Daimyō family in Shikoku. Although they were far from the centre of power in Japan, they had their own high standards and traditions in Shikoku. Possibly looked down upon by mainland artisans(?). How good was each individual smith? How good is your tsuba? To gain understanding and appreciation we need to read the materials available, and handle tsuba. I have a couple of Shikoku Myōchin tsuba myself, one from Tosa like you, and one from Takamatsu.

 

This might be peripheral but I would imagine Tosa artisans would have been looked down upon simply for historical reasons dating back to the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 when the Chosokabe (ruled Tosa Han) sided against the Tokugawa and lost. Animosity between the samurai of Tosa and the Bakufu continued until the Meiji Restoration and collapse of the Edo Period in 1868 due to the treatment of the tozama (the great daimyo who had opposed the Tokugawa and their respective domains, Tosa, Choshu and Satsuma). These domains also happened to be the ones that fought to restore imperial power (not a coincidence) and many of the earliest, most prominent Japanese politicians of the Meiji Period were from these domains such as Japan's first prime minister Ito Hirobumi who was from Choshu and Itagaki Taisuke, who served with Hirobumi as Home Minister in Hirobumi's Second Administration was from Tosa. 

 

It would therefore not surprise me that works from artisans in Shikoku would have been looked down upon in general, but particularly so if the work came from Tosa. Simply put, looking down upon Tosa with distrust was sort of the unofficial position of the Bakufu itself throughout the Edo Period. The Chosokabe in Tosa were also the most powerful samurai clan in Shikoku so to see this mistrust and animosity extended to Shikoku as a whole would hardly be surprising.

[rodrig4]

23 hours ago, rodrig4 said:

par c

hello.
I could not define the typology of this tsuba.
could be you have know .
thanks in advance .
cordially.

                     RG.

ontre quelle place occupait ce forgeron dans l'échelle des connaissances et des connaissances de son art.
avait une place à part ou était-ce un forgeron parmi tant d'autres.

 

[Spartancrest]

I think your tsuba has elements of some Saotome style with Tosa Myochin, do you mean the general shape? I would put it down as Kawari-gata, irregular shape. I have a very large guard with the same rough dented look which I can't exactly fit to any specific school but I think is Myochin.