Otsuriūken Nobuyuki - Hamano family

[Yves55]

 Please give me your opinion about this 'mei', without seeing the iron (...) fuchi... 

 

[MauroP]

 

Far from the real thing, in any aspect...

[Yves55]

Reflection of the moon in the rippling river.

 

 

Iron, silver inlay, gold...

 

[Jake6500]

On this topic, it just so happens that I have a fuchigashira coming from Japan signed Hamano Noriyuki...

 

The work definitely has Hamano style features but it could still be gimei.

 

Tell me what you think! If anyone has any ideas about the theme let me know. Spent some time brainstorming about this one but couldn't definitively work it out. Whilst there appears to be a famous samurai on the kashira, the rider on the fuchi appears to be wearing foreign armour (?)

 

 

[MauroP]

Jake, search for 宇治川先陣 - Ujigawa senjin - Race at the Uji River

[Yves55]

3 hours ago, Jake6500 said:

On this topic, it just so happens that I have a fuchigashira coming from Japan signed Hamano Noriyuki...

 

The work definitely has Hamano style features but it could still be gimei.

 

Tell me what you think! If anyone has any ideas about the theme let me know. Spent some time brainstorming about this one but couldn't definitively work it out. Whilst there appears to be a famous samurai on the kashira, the rider on the fuchi appears to be wearing foreign armour (?)

 

 

Very beautiful workmanship 

[Yves55]

And the other side of my 乙柳軒鋪隨 signed fuchi. Gold, copper and shakudo (?) inlays on iron base.

 

[Jake6500]

2 hours ago, MauroP said:

Jake, search for 宇治川先陣 - Ujigawa senjin - Race at the Uji River

I had considered this possibility and it was in the shortlist of themes I came up with, with the assistance of @Iekatsu, but the rider on the fuchi seems to be wearing foreign armour, likely Chinese or Korean based on other works floating around out there. This has given me some doubts...

 

I was considering the possibility that it is Takezaki Suenaga from the defense of Hakata Bay during the Mongol invasion, however Kajiwara Genta Kagesue from the Genpei War also came to mind per your suggestion as he was portrayed in a similar fashion to the Fuchi in Ukiyoe works and the Uji river theme was very popular...

 

In the battle at Hakata Bay one of the generals on the Mongol side was from Goryeo which might explain our (foreign?) rider's armour on the fuchi if we were to go with the Suenaga theory...

 

Ukiyoe paintings of both examples below, starting with Takezaki Suenaga first followed by Kajiwara Kagesue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jake6500]

1 hour ago, Yves55 said:

Very beautiful workmanship 

 

Thank you very much, we'll see how it looks in person once it arrives in the coming week or 2!

 

It wasn't cheap but I think it will be worth it. Some design points to note include the golden eyes of our samurai on the kashira and the way the bow curves over the side which are both indicative of Hamano style designs. The mei also seems fairly close to Mauro's example despite it being from a different Hamano artist...

 

Here is another work example from the same artist and a thread with some other examples of Hamano Noriyuki's mei...

 

 

 

 

[Yves55]

And with a fuchi comes... a kashira 

Preview... 

 

 

Siver and gold inlay on iron base.

[Yves55]

30 minutes ago, Jake6500 said:

 

Thank you very much, we'll see how it looks in person once it arrives in the coming week or 2!

 

It wasn't cheap but I think it will be worth it. Some design points to note include the golden eyes of our samurai on the kashira and the way the bow curves over the side which are both indicative of Hamano style designs. The mei also seems fairly close to Mauro's example despite it being from a different Hamano artist...

 

Here is another work example from the same artist and a thread with some other examples of Hamano Noriyuki's mei...

 

Nice tsuba!

We'll come back on the subject... 

 

 

 

[Yves55]

3 minutes ago, Yves55 said:

And with a fuchi comes... a kashira 

Preview... 

 

 

Siver and gold inlay on iron base.

Silver...

[Yves55]

And here it is 

 

[Yves55]

The insides and some numbers:

F: 37,5 x 20,3 x 10,1 mm / 15,72 gr

K: 34,0 x 16,5 x 9,3 mm / 11,69 gr

 

[Matsunoki]

@Jake6500…..Why hijack Yves thread? He came on here asking for opinions on the Mei of his fuchi kashira!…and then in you crash with your stuff so we end up looking at yours and chasing the possible theme on yours etc and Yves gets no answers. 

 

[Matsunoki]

Yves, sorry to say I agree with Mauro…..it is gimei and nowhere near the quality and artistry you would expect from Hamano school. 

[Yves55]

1 minute ago, Matsunoki said:

Yves, sorry to say I agree with Mauro…..it is gimei and nowhere near the quality and artistry you would expect from Hamano school. 

Dear Colin,

I recently bought them because I liked them, without knowing what the kanji (mei) meant.

A "little" research brought me to 乙柳軒鋪隨. So I made this topic.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[Matsunoki]

1 hour ago, Yves55 said:

recently bought them because I liked them,

Always the best reason to buy anything.

[Jake6500]

18 hours ago, Matsunoki said:

@Jake6500…..Why hijack Yves thread? He came on here asking for opinions on the Mei of his fuchi kashira!…and then in you crash with your stuff so we end up looking at yours and chasing the possible theme on yours etc and Yves gets no answers. 

 

 

Apologies, that was not my intention I assure you. I was really just trying to provide another example for qualitative comparison. Basically, it was a round-about way of saying what you yourself have just said, the qualities of the work do not match Hamano school.

 

Referring to the kashira Yves has just shared with us, I would point again to the eyes in the design which don't match those golden eyes typical of Hamano school. Shibuichi also seems to have been more preferred by Hamano artists as a base metal - at least, I think, based on what I have seen.

 

One thing the kashira does do which is more typical of Hamano designs is the scroll curves over the edge of the kashira. Hamano kashira designs often curve over the edge like this.

 

 

 

[Yves55]

4 hours ago, Jake6500 said:

 

Apologies, that was not my intention I assure you. I was really just trying to provide another example for qualitative comparison. Basically, it was a round-about way of saying what you yourself have just said, the qualities of the work do not match Hamano school.

 

Referring to the kashira Yves has just shared with us, I would point again to the eyes in the design which don't match those golden eyes typical of Hamano school. Shibuichi also seems to have been more preferred by Hamano artists as a base metal - at least, I think, based on what I have seen.

 

One thing the kashira does do which is more typical of Hamano designs is the scroll curves over the edge of the kashira. Hamano kashira designs often curve over the edge like this.

 

 

 

Thank you Jake, you don't have to apologize.

You see what I meant with "We'll come back on the subject... "

And speaking about the eyes, those on your tsuba aren't golden eyes either... 

 

[Jake6500]

14 hours ago, Yves55 said:

Thank you Jake, you don't have to apologize.

You see what I meant with "We'll come back on the subject... "

And speaking about the eyes, those on your tsuba aren't golden eyes either... 

 

 

The eyes on the figure on the right are golden, the figure on the left however is squinting so the eyes aren't visible. The golden eyes on Hamano pieces are not necessarily always present or conclusive in and of themselves, however they do appear in a lot of Hamano works that depict human figures. 

 

If you compare the fuchigashira to the Tsuba example, there are also some clear qualitative differences. The Tsuba has more naturalistic, less rigid linework in my view and I've already mentioned how Hamano school seem to lean more toward Shibuichi as a base metal which is inconsistent with your fuchigashira and leaves me doubtful that it is a Hamano school piece. More likely a later Edo gimei piece by an artisan trying to cash in on the reputation of the Hamano name. This was of course common in the Edo Period.