Triple diamond pine bark motif? Need help.

[Deez77]

Hi all,

 

Could someone with more knowledge of tsuba motifs clarify what this Kinai tsuba motif is called. I've encountered "triple diamond" and I believe "pine bark". I thought it might be a mon, but couldn't find one like it so I'm guessing that's not right. 

Also, would you say those are birds or geese near where the ana would be? And are the arrows up, down, left and right just a product of the rest of the design, or could they represent something else?

 

This is a nice katana size piece with a nicely looking and feeling patina.

 

Appreciate all of your insights. 

 

Damon

[Jake6500]

Seems like an unusual theme but the first thing that came to my mind was onmyoji paper shikigami...

 

Doubt this is correct though 

[ROKUJURO]

To me it looks like quadruple MATSUKAWA BISHI with 2 KARIGANE. Not unusual.

[Spartancrest]

  From this site originally? https://www.samurai-...723/109724/list.html

 

https://commons.wiki...ishi_ni_Oni-zuta.svg

 

 

 

   One with a bird and jumbled Matsukawa-bishi   [logo of https://tsuba.info/ ]

 

 

Owari school - no karigane [birds] 

 

 

Akasaka school - no karigane [birds]

[Deez77]

Thank you everyone. That's the term I was looking for, Matsukawa-bishi. And thank you Dale for the many examples you attached.

 

Damon

[Bugyotsuji]

There are many stories as to its meaning, why this mon was chosen, and why loved by so many families in so many arrangements.

[Deez77]

3 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

There are many stories as to its meaning, why this mon was chosen, and why loved by so many families in so many arrangements.

Is there a particular source for that material that you can share, Piers, or do you mean just available on the internet in general?

 

Damon

[Bugyotsuji]

Valid question, Damon. I had heard one story which fascinated me, so looking for backup confirmation I was reading a long explanation in Japanese today but it didn't mention the original one that I'd heard. So between them all, I suddenly remembered other more pressing things I had to do around the house!!! 

 

Working backwards, there is a type of diamond-shaped mochi in three colours (pink, white and green) which is part of a traditional March Girls' Day display, probably harking back to when preserved foods would tide people through the winter months. But why was it diamond-shaped? The story I heard was that in times of famine, when there was nothing to eat, people would pull diamond-shaped chunks of Kawa 皮 bark off Matsu 松 pine trees and boil them up as a sort of last-gasp soup. The pine trees now stripped of their bark would have these Hishi/bishi 菱 diamond patterns on their trunks, Matsu + kawa +hishi/bishi. Now here comes the bushi warrior angle. During the seige of a castle the defenders might eventually resort to this, (like Charlie Chaplin eating his boots) and to the dried warabi and zenmai ferns besides which were purposely placed into the mud/daub walls for just such occasions. Castles, warriors, seiges, hardship, all of this is evoked by the Matsukawa-bishi, Pine bark diamond shape.

 

In my mind when I see the kamon my immediate association is the famous Ogasawara Daimyo family of Kokura, Hiroshima, and presumably the Ogasawara Islands.

[FlorianB]

There’s another explanation that the matsukawa-bishi is actually derived from the fruits of water-caltrop, called "hishi" 菱.

 

 

BTW: The matsukawa-bishi pattern is a very old design and could be found on textiles in the Shoso-in already.

 

Best,
Florian

[Bugyotsuji]

Yes, 菱 Hishi is water caltrops, also sometimes water chestnut, the origin of the word, the shape traditionally described as lozenge or diamond-shape.

 

The matsukawabishi kamon shape of pine bark come from this word, i.e. matsukawa + hishi. I do agree that it seems to have melded or blended back towards incorporating elements of the original pointed/spiked caltrop shape.