Hamano school Menuki identification

[Jack Zacao]

This is a pair of round Menuki with high quality carving and true inlay, of 2.1 cm diameter. They do not have poles so are just glued on the handle I guess. The signature are of Hamano school 浜野 but only the last two characters 寿隨 are carved. There were three craftsman used signature 浜野寿隨 based on my research but I can not tell which one made this. Has anyone here seen other stuff with same signature in same style? I know the chance is remote but maybe I am lucky.thanks

[Jake6500]

Hi Jack,

 

I want to start off saying I am less confident about identifying menuki than other types of Tosogu (they are the one type I don't currently own in my collection) but I have fallen pretty deep down the metaphorical Hamano rabbit hole recently and I am a tad doubtful that these are authentic Hamano works...

 

The artistic quality / clarity of the piece and the theme don't seem to align with those typical of Hamano works... A lot of Hamano works revolve around historical, mythological or folklore based themes. In some cases designs will curve over the edge of the piece (though this may not always apply, or may not apply to menuki), the quality of the metal should be evident at a glance, the linework fluid and detailed...

 

Here are some examples of Hamano menuki for you to compare to...

 

https://www.bonhams....od-18th19th-century/

 

https://nihontoart.c...ki-by-hamano-shozui/

 

My current profile picture is also of a fuchigashira in my collection signed Hamano Shozui. Despite it being of fairly high quality, it still isn't clear whether it is an authentic Hamano work or gimei as it was not uncommon for artisans in the Edo Period to use the name of more established/renowned artisans.

 

You always have to inspect a piece in hand to know the quality for sure as pictures don't always tell the whole story, but respectfully I am doubtful that your menuki are authentic Hamano work based on the pictures you've provided... Still a nice piece of history to have in your possession, assuming you didn't overpay for them!

 

PS. I do also find it a bit odd that the back of your menuki are missing pins and are not hollow. Not sure how common/uncommon this is for Edo Period menuki but I'm sure someone on the forum will have greater expertise on this.

[Soshin]

9 hours ago, Jack Zacao said:

Has anyone here seen other stuff with same signature in same style? I know the chance is remote but maybe I am lucky.thanks

 

Hi @Jack Zacao,

 

Nice menuki set! I've seen other menuki sets with similar two-character signatures before. However, I'm not very familiar with Hamano School menuki works in general, so I can't judge your example or identify the specific artist. Relying solely on Bonhams Auction and one website as references provides too small a sample size to draw identifiable characteristics for Kanei. You would need a more rigorous study of the prolific Hamano School of the Edo Period. If I were you, I would keep looking and seek more educated opinions. I am still studying and trying to learn more about non-tsuba Japanese sword fittings in general myself.

[Jack Zacao]

Thank you Jake and Soshin for your comments and opinions. What I really like about it is the mountain and lake scene it depicts. It is a well known pattern in Chinese porcelain and scholar paintings and we can see the influence of culture here. But this pattern is very rarely used in swords fittings primarily due to the space limitations I suspect. Later in the Meiji period, it becomes very popular again on export mixed metal display objects, which are larger in size. The size is only the same as a US nickel coin and the amount of details shown is pretty amazing. The pictures do not do justice and the pair shows much better in hand. So far I found a couple examples from the same name but they are kozuka and Fuchi, links are shown bellow. I will continue to look for the answer and that is what makes collecting fun.

 

https://www.winners-...productDetail/15888/
 

https://art.thewalters.org/object/51.1086/

 

[Soshin]

23 hours ago, Jack Zacao said:

Thank you Jake and Soshin for your comments and opinions. What I really like about it is the mountain and lake scene it depicts. It is a well known pattern in Chinese porcelain and scholar paintings and we can see the influence of culture here. But this pattern is very rarely used in swords fittings primarily due to the space limitations I suspect.

 

Hi @Jack Zacao,

 

I wanted to share some thoughts about your statement. In my opinion, it isn't entirely accurate. I have a wakizashi fittings set in my collection that features a Chinese style landscape motif. These intricate designs were created in very limited spaces on the smaller sword fittings used in wakizashi mounts. They're not as uncommon as you might think. Feel free to check out the fittings set (koshirae 拵え) on my website for more details (link in my signature).

Based on my study, your menuki set was likely made during the late Edo Period to early Meiji Period, before the public wearing of Japanese swords was banned. The design reminds me of the Chinese style landscapes done by the Jakushi (杓子) School in Nagasaki (長崎).

I hope you find this information helpful and encouraging for your future study.

 

 

Note: Checked my website and the fitting set are listed as being for katana but the sunagi (wooden blade) "cutting edge" size would technically make it a wakizashi and not a katana.         

Edited March 3 by Soshin
Checked my own website.

[Jake6500]

3 hours ago, Soshin said:

 

Hi @Jack Zacao,

 

I wanted to share some thoughts about your statement. In my opinion, it isn't entirely accurate. I have a wakizashi fittings set in my collection that features a Chinese style landscape motif. These intricate designs were created in very limited spaces on the smaller sword fittings used in wakizashi mounts. They're not as uncommon as you might think. Feel free to check out the fittings set (koshirae 拵え) on my website for more details (link in my signature).

Based on my study, your menuki set was likely made during the late Edo Period to early Meiji Period, before the public wearing of Japanese swords was banned. The design reminds me of the Chinese style landscapes done by the Jakushi (杓子) School in Nagasaki (長崎).

I hope you find this information helpful and encouraging for your future study.

 

 

Note: Checked my website and the fitting set are listed as being for katana but the sunagi (wooden blade) "cutting edge" size would technically make it a wakizashi and not a katana.         

 

Jakushi is an interesting direction for further inquiry and I definitely see a resemblance there David. Jakushi also loved their landscape designs...

 

Reverting to the topic of Hamano menuki here are a few more examples floating around out there...

 

http://nihonto.us/SHOZUI MENUKI DM000.htm

 

https://japaneseswor...enuki-signed-shozui/

 

From these links we see that Hamano artists did sign the back of menuki in a similar fashion to Jack's menuki (as did many other schools), however I have still yet to see any examples of Hamano school works that depict a landscape for a landscape's sake... If that makes sense.

 

There is basically always some kind of additional focus with some sort of central figure in every Hamano piece I have seen whether it is a culturally significant animal, a mythological character/creature, a Chinese sage or a general from the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. Sometimes it might even be as simple as a merchant riding a horse through the rain. However, I am yet to find any Hamano works that only depict landscapes whether they be menuki, tsuba, etc.

 

That does not necessarily prove anything, however it leads me to err more on the side of caution.

[Jack Zacao]

I am relatively new to the hobby and you guys must have seen lot more in this design. Thank you for providing the new directions to look into.

[SteveM]

Small correction: Jakushi = 若芝

[Soshin]

On 3/4/2025 at 3:06 PM, SteveM said:

Small correction: Jakushi = 若芝

 

I checked my references, and you are correct. I had the wrong Kanji on the Koshirae Gallery webpage but the correct ones on the write-up of another standalone Jakushi tsuba.  Thank you for the correction.