Kagami-shi?

[Iekatsu]

Shape: Maru Gata

Mimi: Dote Mimi

 

2mm at Seppadai

4.5mm at Mimi.

H 68mm

W 68mm

 

The yamagane or bronze plate appears to have been cast and has a deep brown patina. There is remnants of black Urushi in the recesses of the plate. The Hitsu-ana are rather crude and appear to have to have been added later. The design looks be be floral in nature (perhaps incorporating mon?).

 

Sorry about the poor photographs, any thoughts or attributions would be appreciated.

[Pete Klein]

I think you pretty much nailed it. Kagamishi tsuba. Hitsu are later additions from what I can tell, probably during later Momoyama but impossible to tell for sure. Interesting little piece.

 

PS: I'm at the point I just say 'Pre-Edo' for time of fabrication as there are too many differing theories on this.

[Rich T]

Hi Hitori san. I agree with Pete. It is very similar to one from my collection. These usually date from the mid Muromachi to Momoyama period. There is a little book by Sasano that is dedicated to these guard. The hitsu are pretty crude and an obvious later addition as Pete also notes. The tsuba is almost identical to one in the Sasano book I have just noted. I have added a scan of the two pages for you. It is dated to the end of the Muromachi period. Also attached is my one, probably from the same time.

 

Cheers

 

Richard

 

Sasano Tsuba (interesting to note that there appears to be a hitsu filled with yamagane in this piece also)

 

 

My Tsuba

[Toryu2020]

Thought: Fraking beautiful!

-t

[Pete Klein]

Tom -- I couldn't agree more. This is one form of tsuba I have always wanted to find a pristine example of but they are few and far between. Luckily I am quite a patient chap.

 

That's a hint RKG! LOL

[rkg]

Pete,

 

Huh, What!! Me??!!

 

I've got to photograph a couple of these over the years, but just have one - here's a b/w shot I got of it - it was

part of a fine art series of tsuba I shot:

 

http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuff/a ... i_arty.jpg

 

So many tsuba, so little money :-)

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[bridgeofdreams]

Ditto to everything that's been said so far. I always wanted to expand my "early soft metal" collection to include examples of kagami-shi, but could never find any that were affordable. Heck I could hardly find ANY for sale.

 

Craig

 

PS - Tom gets bonus points for correctly spelling "frak" - it is a four letter word, there's no "c" in it.

[Toryu2020]

What do I look like a Tauron?

[Iekatsu]

Thank you all for the information and opinions.

 

Mr Turner, your kagamishi tsuba is what sparked my initial interest in this particular variety of tsuba, yours is an excellent example.

 

All the best,

[Pete Klein]

RKG -- yeah, that's the one. I always liked it -- but you got to it first...

[BMarkhasin]

Very nice mid-Muromachi kagami-shi tsuba. Excellent acquisition, congrats.

Best,

Boris.