In search of Big Moon...Otsuki Mitsuoki

[Ford Hallam]

It's probably a long shot but I thought I'd ask anyway...

 

I have a catalogue called "Drawing with tagane chisels"...that was put out by the, now defunct, Tosogu Museum in 1997.

 

There's a shichu tsuba by Mitsuoki Otsuki illustrated in it which is, imo, one of the finest works of kata-kiri in existence...and I've seen a few

 

 

Anyway, for my own nefarious reasons I'm looking for a bigger, better, clearer image of this masterpiece. Front and back.

 

If anyone has such an image...I'd be most grateful to receive a copy.

 

thanks for reading my request,

 

regards,

ford

[DirkO]

Hi Ford,

 

I was able to find some high res pics on http://art.thewalters.org but not the exact tsuba you're looking for. Although nr4 is absolutely fabulous. If you ever decide to not do a "tribute" of that one, I'll be more than happy to buy it from you :-)

 

Copied high res pics here to not abuse NMB bandwidth :

http://www.genpuku.com/otsuki

[Ford Hallam]

cheers Dirk,

 

thanks for looking for me, I appreciate the effort

 

regards,

 

ford

[Marc BROQUIN]

Message sent with some other pics.

I will search and try to find your tsuba.

Best

Marc

[Ford Hallam]

Thanks Marc

 

Just to better illustrate the quality of Mitsuoki's kata-kiri here's an excellent example borrowed from the MFA site...for educational purposes.

 

What Mitsuoki does that marks his work out as being something more than regular kata-kiri is he subtly begins to carve and model the focus points of his subject. Where most kata-kiri is a picture made up of chiselled lines representing brush strokes Mitsuoki Otsuki pushes his strokes to the point they are actually also carving the picture in a more sculptural way.

 

In this example the Oni's nose is actually properly modelled and the robes, while cut with a kata-kiri chisel, are done so deeply, and vigorously, as to appear completely 3 dimensional. Personally, I judge him to be a true genius of the art form and for me, the most expressive exponent of kata-kiri.

 

[Shirogitsune]

Hi Ford and all,

 

I believe this is an Otsuki school tsuba. Has anyone seen a reference image or an image published in a book? Opinions please.

[ROKUJURO]

Ford,

are you sure it is a SHINCHU TSUBA? On the photo, I have more the impression of YAMAGANE.

Some aspects of the work remind me of JOI. Of course, he sometimes used a variety of different techniques in one work, and often mixed KATA KIRI with others, more sculptural ones. 

[Brian]

Guys, it was 7 years ago!
Don't necro-post!

[ROKUJURO]

Sorry, I did not see that!