On Yamashiro Tenpo tsuba

[Lorenzo]

Hello.

 

I have read and appreciated the article on Yamashiro Tenpo school here:

http://www.users.on.net/~coxm/8.%20tsuba%20ii.html and many thanks to who wrote it.

 

I would like now to know if a member of this board own one, or if someone can say about the steel construction. Was yamashiro tenpo tsuba made of one plate of steel only? Was it layered steel?

 

Thank you.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Lorenzo, I have one. Large, great steel. It shows a forging lamination in one spot as well as small granular tekkotsu. I think in the forging there may have been a fold, but, not multiple folding as blades do. The steel is pleasant to hold and the patina is good. John

[Lee Bray]

Hi Lorenzo,

 

I previously owned this piece, viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6203, which appeared to be Tembo school.

From recollection, there appeared to be 1 or 2 lines that I could see in the nakago ana, so possibly either 2 or 3 layers.

They're just about visible in the photos in the thread.

[Lorenzo]

Thank you for your confirmations. Mine shows the same characteristics of steel you pointed out, as well as a three layer sandwich structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lorenzo]

Other pictures here

[Andi B.]

Here is my piece, but I can not discover any layers...

 

[IanB]

Here is the tsuba from an handachi mounted sword I own. The shape is somewhat different than many that have been posted and it has a pronounced hammered rim. The size is 8.4 x 7.7 and 0.5 cm thick through the nakago ana - so quite a heavy piece. The kamon on the front are two of those used by the Date family of Sendai, the mitsu tomoe maru on the back by too many families to identify. These are applied in a rather dark shibuichi giving them a subdued appearance against the dark iron. I suspect they have been added at a later date to the basic plate - but have been inlaid rather than just applied. In the hand you can see the KIN stamp plus another that looks rather like a snake. Most of the punched marks are simple squares.

Ian Bottomley

[Lorenzo]

The size is 8.4 x 7.7 and 0.5 cm thick through the nakago ana - so quite a heavy piece

 

 

Mine's sizes are the following:

 

84mm x 83mm x thickness variable in a range between 4 and 6 mm

[docliss]

Here is example of an early tenpō tsuba, 7.8 cm – 7.6 cm, with the later addition of a gold, suemon-zōgan depiction of ivy (tsuta) leaves and tendrils. There is a raised, flattened, hammered mimi, a small kōgai-hitsu, and what appear to be brass sekigane in the well-used nakago-hitsu. The inlay covers much of the kokuin, but some of this has been lost, clearly revealing a ‘ten’ kanji at 2 o’clock on the ura surface. Search as I may, I can detect no indications of folding.

 

I am puzzled by the choice by tsubakō of tenpō plates for later decoration; surely such work would have been simpler on plain, undecorated plates?

 

John L.

[cspage]

Here is the one Tempo tsuba I have. One can see in the cutouts for the sekigane that there is a step down from the surface to what appears to be another layer. Also in the closeup one can see where it appears as though a layer has been lifted a bit in the cut. There doesn't seem to be obvious indications of layers in the mimi, however, or in the two hitsu-ana. For what it's worth. It's good to see some Tempo here. Good subject and not much mentioned.

 

Colin

[rkg]

Hi,

 

Interesting question. I just dug out my tembos and looked at them. I do see some evidence that the plates were folded over.

 

The early ones had excellent iron (still looked like saotome metal) and really great compositions - the later ones not-so-much.

 

I'm sure I've posted images of the little beasts before, but here's a couple of them I shot for a fine art series of tsuba

images I was putting together:

 

 

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

I came across this old topic while searching the NMB for information on Tenpo tsuba. My tsuba display some similarities of the other tsuba displayed. I purchased this tsuba last weekend at a local Washington DC auction house. The auction house item report dated the tsuba at 17th Century (i.e. 1600s). It comes with a old collectors tag likely older than me. I think it an early example of the Tenpo school that shows fair amount of similarities and crossover with the Heianjo shinchu-zogan school of Kyoto located in Yamashiro Province. Noticeably how the brass is inlaid which is noticeable in one inlay that has been damaged on the omote side at 4:00. The brass has a dark old color often found in imported brass from mainland China. Its color reminds me of a Onin tsuba I once owned. The plate surface of tsuba has a layer of black lacquered applied a long time ago and strong hammer marks along with large hot stamps of unknown design. The brass has been inlaid into the large hot stamps. They have been hammered and circular punch marks been applied. The measurements for the tsuba are in the first photo. The second photos shows the wonderful actively along the turned up rim that included linear shaped iron bones and folding lines. There are also folding lines on the inside surfaces of the ana similar to the above examples. Comments and questions are welcome. I really love Tenpo tsuba. :D