Wanted: Clock Gear/Rays of Light and Temple Bell Sukashi Tsuba (Owari, Kanayama, and Ohno)

[Iaido dude]

I have seen earlier NMB posts of many early sukashi tsuba with the motif of "clock gear/tokei" or alternatively "rays of light/shakoh" if you believe in the theory of Jesuit symbolism, which I do. Likewise for the temple bell/bonsho motif. I am interested in the use of these religious motifs in early sukashi tsuba from Owari Province (Kanayama, Owari, and Ohno styles). Please contact me if you have any of these that you would like to sell to an appreciative collector located in Florida. In fact, any Buddhist iconography is of interest to me (e.g. manji mon, amida-yasuri, kuruma "dharma wheel").

 

[ROKUJURO]

Hi Steve,

I have no TOKEI TSUBA for sale but you will find a few of them on the AOI/TSURUTA-SAN website.

However, I will show you my AMIDA rays TSUBA which is clearly not clock-gear related. Perhaps it is of interest to you.

Kind regards,

Jean 

[Iaido dude]

Jean, I actually don’t believe that this type of motif is a clock gear (tokei) at all. This is just plain wrong. Why would samurai actually want to have a clock gear as a sword fitting? Perhaps merchants in later Edo who became interested in mechanical time pieces. Rather, I agree with you entirely that we are seeing the amida-yasuri Buddhist motif transformed to the Jesuit rays of light motif (shakoh) with the introduction of Catholicism by the Protestants in Japan around the turn of the 17th century. The shakoh motif and what it's Christian symbolism made complete sense and provided spiritual inspiration to buke in the Momoyama and Early Edo Periods. The ones on the AOI site are in poor shape and not very powerful. Yours is a variant of the amida-yasuri/shakoh motif that is much bolder and interesting in composition. I’ll continue with PM to you. Thanks!

[Iaido dude]

Meant "...introduction of Catholicism by the Portuguese in Japan..."