Iron tsuba and fuchi

[Nostro Titus]

Good day

 

I recently handled these two. Both unfortunately were sanded and coated with black enamel paint and then suffered more rusting.

The fuchi depicts chery blossoms (mostly the half of the blossoms, unfortunately no sign of the matching saya guchi).

 

Would the tsuba be Higo work (I was tempted to say Akasaka but in the end the overall look and finish pulled me towards Higo). Any information and comments welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marius

[Michael 101]

Hi Marius,

 

A great shame about the condition.

 

I would say these are Higo in style but not made by the any of the main line schools.

 

The fuchi has a indent for the kozuka - which higo versions do not.

 

The tsuba design is higo but the size of the seppa dai area is too large for Higo main schools.

 

Higo tsuba were very fashionable (and still are !) and therefore like all things in fashion they were much copied.

 

Hope the tsuba cleans up OK.

 

regards

 

Michael

[Soshin]

Good day

 

I recently handled these two. Both unfortunately were sanded and coated with black enamel paint and then suffered more rusting.

The fuchi depicts chery blossoms (mostly the half of the blossoms, unfortunately no sign of the matching saya guchi).

 

Marius,

From what I see in the photographs the black enamel paint you are referencing is more likely black lacquer. Tsuba were some times coated with black colored lacquer when they were made to prevent or slow rusting. If you remove the black lacker you will likely expose bright clean metal. This would be a major no no and would devalue the tsuba. Try to remove the rust and leave the black lacquer in place if possible. Thank for sharing the photos.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S. (Soshin)

[Ford Hallam]

David,

 

I think you're quite right to be concerned about removing genuine old lacquer from a pre-Edo period guard however I think that in this case it's not urushi. This is a very late, generic copy of a classic Higo design. We don't really see such guards lacquered.

 

A reliable way to check though, would be to apply a tiny spot of paint stripper (nitromors on the end of a toothpick for instance) to an area of the paint/lacquer. Do this in an inconspicuous place and leave it a few minutes. Paint will eventually begin to soften while urushi remains unaffected.

 

ford

[Soshin]

David,

 

I think you're quite right to be concerned about removing genuine old lacquer from a pre-Edo period guard however I think that in this case it's not urushi. This is a very late, generic copy of a classic Higo design. We don't really see such guards lacquered.

 

A reliable way to check though, would be to apply a tiny spot of paint stripper (nitromors on the end of a toothpick for instance) to an area of the paint/lacquer. Do this in an inconspicuous place and leave it a few minutes. Paint will eventually begin to soften while urushi remains unaffected.

 

ford

 

Ford,

Thank you for the information. I find it interesting that the lacquer would react differently to the modern paint stripper. I had a friend of mine you has collected Nihonto and Tosogu longer then I have been alive told me a story about such a case of accidentally removing some of the black lacquer from a tsuba exposing part of the clean metal surface. His tsuba was likely pre-Edo or early Edo in age.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S. (Soshin)

[Ford Hallam]

David,

 

cured urushi is essentially impervious to all solvents, acids and paint strippers...it may become somewhat dried out but it certainly won't dissolved or otherwise breakdown like paints and varnishes do.

 

This is something that has been extensively examined in laboratories in Europe, America and Japan as it's fundamental to the understanding of proper conservation and restoration. There exists a significant amount of scientific literature on the matter.

 

Your friend's tsuba may well have been pre-Edo but if the black surface softened or dissolved after an application of a solvent or stripper then it wasn't urushi.

 

You may find the discussion of urushi restoration here, of interest.

[Nostro Titus]

Thanks for the helpful input, guys.

 

Regarding the restoration, I'm leaving any cleaning and restoration to the experts.

I would like to see the end result though.

 

Marius

[Soshin]

Your friend's tsuba may well have been pre-Edo but if the black surface softened or dissolved after an application of a solvent or stripper then it wasn't urushi.

You may find the discussion of urushi restoration here, of interest.

 

Thanks again Ford for providing additional information about urushi and the board and very important issue of conversation versus restoration. The chemistry surrounding this whole issue I suspect to be very interesting from a scientific perceptive being a scientists (Biologist) myself by professional training. As for my friend's tsuba the substance that he was suspecting to be urushi was removed by mistake by mechanical abrasion and not by chemical means through the application of a modern organic solvent. I was under the impression that urushi applied to a iron surface would dry out and flake off over the course of hundredths of years. I have seen some examples in the Kodôgu no Sekai blog here http://kodogunosekai.com/.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S. (Soshin)