Share the most cringeworthy tsuba you have seen

[Iaido dude]

These can be tsuba you own or have seen elsewhere. Here’s one that inspired this thread. Enough said. 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/t1177198028

 

[Bazza]

Sadly, I no longer have the most cringeworthy tsuba I've ever seen.  It was unbelievably UGHHH and looked like a beginner's first attempt at an iron tsuba with a high relief blob that resembled a person.  This was very pre-Message Board and I almost wish I still had it to show here...

 

BaZZa.

[lonely panet]

they arnt tsuba,  

10 hours ago, Iaido dude said:

These can be tsuba you own or have seen elsewhere. Here’s one that inspired this thread. Enough said. 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/t1177198028

 

its not a tsuba,  its a paperweight commemorating a event of something. do your homework,  it was never made to fit on a sword so its not a tsuba. 

[Spartancrest]

Whilst I find the first two "masks" cringeworthy, I am very much taken by the two mempo designs - Eye of the beholder - define cringeworthy?

 

 

There would be plenty of cringeworthy subjects depicted on tsuba - I like this "Freddy Krueger" Daruma rendition. [The tsuba image is poor but I found a drawing of it, which is much clearer]

 

 

I can find a great many truly ugly "tsuba looking things" - ie. cast fakes for unwary tourists, but as Hamfish has made clear these would not really count as they are not really tsuba. [JMHO]

[PNSSHOGUN]

It was Dale who posted this original vs fake comparison, still hilarious:

 

[Iaido dude]

14 hours ago, lonely panet said:

they arnt tsuba,  

its not a tsuba,  its a paperweight commemorating a event of something. do your homework,  it was never made to fit on a sword so its not a tsuba. 

 

Perhaps we should include tsuba-shaped or tsuba-like items that make one’s skin crawl. 

 

The tsuba-shaped paper weight I posted commemorates the Japanese Imperial Army occupation of Manchuria (1931-1945). It clearly has collecting value by the looks of that auction. 

 

As cringe worthy to me as this ash tray. 

 

 

 

[Spartancrest]

13 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

original vs fake comparison, still hilarious:

Lots of these getting about - some much worse.

 

 

[Spartancrest]

20 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Plenty of cringeworthy subjects depicted on tsuba

Well they don't get much worse than this example from the British Museum - Not that it was ever a "real tsuba"  - [very ballsy!]

[Spartancrest]

Do these count as cringeworthy? A collection of ten guards ruined so they could be strung together at someones whim - now in the National Gallery of Victoria [Australia]

[Iaido dude]

All highly cringeworthy. I do find it tragic to find an otherwise rare and desirable tsuba that has been severely damaged or purposely ruined. 

[Winchester]

In reference to the original post, many on sites like eBay. There are exceptions and a nice tsuba doesn't have to be expensive for its' aesthetics to be appreciated in my opinion, but many on eBay are a bit cringeworthy.

[Jake6500]

19 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Do these count as cringeworthy? A collection of ten guards ruined so they could be strung together at someones whim - now in the National Gallery of Victoria [Australia]

 

Why does the NGV keep these? Surely they could get their hands on superior pieces even before the butchery.....

[Spartancrest]

37 minutes ago, Jake6500 said:

Why does the NGV keep these?

Jake, the NGV has 147 guards in its collection, they are all as far as I know, from a bequest [By "Felton"] donated between 1921 and a few in 1924. There are no "spectacular" pieces in the whole collection, about half are sukashi and very few famous names are recorded. I took the liberty of grouping four Australian museum collections and compiled a single catalogue of their contents as far as tsuba go [260 pages]. Would you like a PDF? It is not a publication that can be generally released as there are copyright issues but "research" should be ok. 

[Spartancrest]

This is odd, I just checked the NGV website and found they have "up-dated" their information and images - now all the ura views have disappeared, which means my PDF has the only record of both sides - this in its own way is cringeworthy, a museum cutting its information available to the public! 

 

[Well they weren't quick enough to fool me! ]

[Steves87]

Museum's will keep those sorts of Tsuba if they are part of a fronds, or if they were of note to a well-enough-known individual... if this is the case, it is very unlikely they will ever be deaccessioned. Relatably, if a museum does not have a collections policy/collection direction for that type of historic item, they will not go out of their way to find better examples either. My local state museum is a prime example of this.

 

As for removing images, there are a few-to-many reasons for doing this... not usually for any untoward reasons... cases may include: updating digitisation efforts, management software upgrades, inadequate digital storage space... the list goes on.

 

[Spartancrest]

2 hours ago, Steves87 said:

fronds

 For those that don't know what a FRONDS is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonds  

 

   Not one of these             

[Jake6500]

11 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Jake, the NGV has 147 guards in its collection, they are all as far as I know, from a bequest [By "Felton"] donated between 1921 and a few in 1924. There are no "spectacular" pieces in the whole collection, about half are sukashi and very few famous names are recorded. I took the liberty of grouping four Australian museum collections and compiled a single catalogue of their contents as far as tsuba go [260 pages]. Would you like a PDF? It is not a publication that can be generally released as there are copyright issues but "research" should be ok. 

 

That would be great Dale!

 

Never turn down an opportunity to obtain new information!

[Steves87]

8 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

 For those that don't know what a FRONDS is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonds  

 

   Not one of these             

Haha, yes, auto correct