Two Unknown Tsuba - Undergrad Research Help

[CrimpSoup86]

Hello All,

 

First off I’d like to say “hello” as a new member to the board. I’m currently an undergrad researching two particular tsuba for my “museum studies” course. As a newbie to tsuba, I’ve had some trouble finding formal information on the subject in our library, and luckily discovered your community. Nothing I can find in print goes any further than just explaining what tsuba were, their cultural significance, etc. Perhaps you all can help me determine who made these, when they were made, what period they’re from, etc. (and how you can tell!)

 

Here is the link to my imageshack account. The tsuba are labeled tsuba 1 and tsuba 2.

http://yfrog.com/14tsuba1fronthighcontrastjx

My thoughts on the two:

Tsuba 1 – At first I thought this was a bootleg because of the poorly carved characters. In the Nakago-ana, the right reads “大森”(Oomori?) and the left reads “英一” (too many names to count). However, when showing my Japanese-language teacher, I learned that one character (“Ei”, which I thought was simply mis-written) was actually an old spelling. I have no clue on how to go about researching this tsuba; I can’t seem to find anything mentioning either of these kanji groups in regards to tsuba. It is rather plain, aside from the strange gold emblem and the high-relief dog.

 

Tsuba 2 – What a beautiful tsuba! The kanji appear expertly written. While I can’t seem to get anywhere with the three on the right (尾 陽 住) I believe I’ve figured out the first five characters on the left side. They are “一龍斎” (Ichiryuusai?) and “美方”(Mikata, Miho, Yoshikata, Yoshinori？). The last two kanji I feel are old spellings, and I havn’t been able to translate them. The black floral motif is quite interesting; do you think its shakudo, or sumi-zogan?

 

Like I had mentioned, I’ve found it quite difficult to find a guide for dating/matching tsuba to a period or craftsman. The “kanji pages” link at the top has been great for giving me some vocabulary to search by, but I’m still in the dark about what to make of these two tsuba.

 

Does anyone have any good tsuba resources for beginners? Does anyone follow a specific hierarchy when deducing the age/maker/etc. of an unknown tsuba? Hopefully you guys can help me out. If anyone has any tips for me or wants to know more about my project, please ask. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

-Kyle

[John A Stuart]

Maybe 大森英一 Omori Hidekazu. May well be a student of Omori Teruhide, hence the 'Hide' in the name. Technique seems medium grade.

The second is 尾 陽 住一龍斎美方X之 Biyo ju Ichiryusai Yoshikata kizamu kore. I can't write the kanji for 'kizamu'. From Owari c. 1800 This one is very good. John

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi,the 1st reads Terukazu,the 4th master of the Omori family school.He was active in the 2nd half of the 18th Century.The Mei (plus Kao) differs from the one I have in my database.He came from Morioka/Mutsu and went to Kanda/Edo.The Kanji following Yoshikata in the 2nd Tsuba (a very nice piece!) is probably an old writing for "kitau" (kitau kore).Ludolf

[John A Stuart]

I finally found that missing kanji, 鐫 kizamu, engraved, so 鐫之 is kizamu kore (wo) 'engraved this'. John

[Ludolf Richter]

My assumption with kizamu vs kitau was quite wrong.The meaning of "kitau" is only "forged",only used by swordsmiths.Ludolf

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Kyle,

A tip, you ask? Do not try to clean/fix/improve/whatever these tsuba. I know this should be obvious, but museums have a well earned reputation for improper care of Nihonto and their fittings; they wouldn't dream of touching an oil painting but gleefully attack tsuba with Brillo pads.

Grey

[CrimpSoup86]

Wow. Thank you all very much.

 

As for the way the museum keeps the tsuba; that is out of my control. While I only chose these two to research, I was told the museum accessioned in a box of 82 recently. I would worry more about those being handled improperly due to the sheer amount. Perhaps I’ll suggest organizing it for them…

 

To think that I received 5 replies before noon is astounding. After about 2 hours of being in the Japanese TA lounge, all of us picking our heads, this is great to see.

 

Tsuba 1: Is there a precedence for the type of gold design (found underneath 英一) in other tsuba, and would anyone know the significance?

 

Tsuba 2 at this point is intriguing me way more that Tsuba 1. Is it safe to say, then, that it reads: “Resident of ‘Biyo’” (尾陽住）”Ichiryusai Yoshikata carved this” (一龍斎　美方 　鐫之) Does anyone know anything about this craftsman?

 

Also to note, on the bottom of the tsuba 2, it appears as if the small circular indentions around the fitting of the blade (don’t know the Japanese term) represent the imperial crest. (chrysanthemum motif). I’m sure it's farfetched to think this tsuba would have been attached to the sword of someone associated with the imperial family, but I noticed it nonetheless.

 

-Kyle

[John A Stuart]

The kakihan/kao in gold is quite common and in some cases the entire mei will be written in this fashion. You've read the second right. According to R.E. Haynes he was a retainer of the Owari Tokugawa daimyo and was a mounter of swords and keeper of blades. His name is recorded as Kosuido, which begs as to the appellation Ichiryusai. John

[CrimpSoup86]

In regards to Terukazu Omori, I've found sources on him and the Omori family in artist records.

 

As for Ichiryusai Yoshikata, I can't find any mentioning of the name (Kosuido as well). Since he worked for the Owari Tokugawa, did he work privately for Owari or were there other individuals/groups that might have commissioned his engraving? I'm not entirely certain of how tsuba craftsmen would work in context to a head of state.

 

Also, as for R.E. Haynes, I cannot find any information on this man. How would I go about accessing his work/database/etc.?

 

-Kyle

[John A Stuart]

Hi Kyle, Robert E Haynes wrote an essential 3 book set called 'The Index of Japanese Sword Fittings and Associated Artists' ISBN3-9805755-4-3

As an artist became reknowned he may be approached and retained by a daimyo to produce work for him and his clan alone. Or, he may have been a hereditary clan retainer by birth. Some artists were more itinerant than others and some remained independant and never moved about. If a retainer, permission would have been needed to produce commissioned works or other sales. John

[Curran]

Kyle-

 

The other members please correct me, but I believe others have implied that the first tsuba probably has a gimei (false) signature.

The second tsuba has a rather beautiful signature. Also, the design is simple but somewhat elegant.

 

There are books and sets of books mostly in Japanese for photo referencing and comparison of the deemed "authentic" signatures of the relatively known and better known artisans. I usually go to the 3 volume set by Wakayama-san when I am curious enough to look up a signature and compare for consideration of authenticity.

 

As John Stuart referenced, Robert E. Haynes is a very long and well respected American student of fittings. In 2001 ? he released a lifetime's work of cataloging and cross referencing his notes on Japanese fittings artisans. His 3 volume set guides most of us here to quickly be able to look up in english many of the artisans and see in what Japanese and some non-Japanese texts we might find more information. It is a very significant work to which even the Japanese establishment are finally tipping their hat. You will probably be hard pressed to find a physical copy for sale. Even the CD version sold by this dealer has jumped in price: http://www.nihonto.com/5.7.09.html

The image should give you an idea of a standard entry on an artisan. Imagine 12,500 of them. Haynes estimates more than 20,000. Over the years I have only added maybe a half dozen to dozen skilled artisans not in his text that were linkable to other artisans of note.

 

As noted by Grey, very few museums have staff that know how to care for these items. There are some notorious instances in which museum staff have absolutely decimated them. With the fade of the Japanese economy, many museums no longer display these items. They are increasingly de-acquisitioned.

 

Hope your class goes well.

[bridgeofdreams]

To clarify the current situation regarding the Haynes Index, it is still "in print" and available from the publisher in Germany, and is actually being sold at a price reduced from it's original. The CD, which is a set of pdf files reproducing all the pages of the book, is (or was) sent with the book and is not sold separately. As the CD was not produced until quite some time after the book was printed, the publisher sent out copies to distributors (like myself) and some direct buyers of the book. I suspect any copies of the CD offered for sale are leftovers from that distribution (I sold a couple of those here some time back) or copies that were given away or sold by people that just wanted to keep the books.

 

The original plan was to have buyers register their copies with the publisher - a postcard was included - and that at some time an update would be issued on CD. That's not happened despite the fact that the last time I spoke with Bob Haynes on this he had over 500 additions and corrections to the work.

 

As Curran alluded to, the Index is based on Bob's experience handling literally thousands of fittings since the early 1960's. Each new artisan was cause for a new index card, and everything was eventually cross-referenced to the various books, auction catalogs, and other references showing that artisan's signature.

 

In any case it is available directly from Nihon Art:

 

http://www.nihonart.de/en/produkte.php

 

I am not aware of any official distribution other than the publisher. I've been told the shipping charges are within reason.

 

- Craig

[Curran]

Craig,

 

I was not aware it was still for sale. Certainly not at that price. Thank you for the link.

Having nearly made a card filing cabinet of my first set, I'm tempted to pick up a second set for the future.

 

No more from our student? I would have been interested in seeing what else the museum had. Not that the student would have had time to share, but if it was an older collection- if would have been interesting to dissect.

[CrimpSoup86]

I would like to thank you all for your help. Without your guidance, I would have been totally lost as to how to go about researching these tsuba. Possibly the most valuable was the link to Hayne's set; while expensive, I can see how that would be a great asset for the future.

 

I was considering talking to the curator and seeing if any student research positions are open. My goal would be to study the other tsuba in the collection (as well as several other Japanese artifacts), and if possible, create a proper storage space. If anyone has any helpful links in regards to tsuba/nihonto maintenance and storage, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

As for my disappearance, I've been off writing my paper which was due earlier this week. I'm sure the museum will be pleased, as they had no information on the tsuba at all (they were accessioned in as "flat metal discs"). I'm still curious about many unknown aspects of the tsuba. For instance, given the simplistic design of tsuba 2 (Ichiryusai Yoshikata), I theorized the flower motif would have related to the Kamon of the Owari clan. I was not able to find anything; anybody know of any thorough resources on Kamon? Also, there appears to be no wear on the tsuba from the habaki/seppa, which suggests to me the tsuba was surplus and was never fitted to a blade. Under what circumstances would this be the case? Maybe because it was produced for only the Owari clan?

 

Hopefully soon I can post more pictures from our museum, just for fun. Also, my grandfather brought a katana home from the Pacific during WWII. While it seems that these aren't always as fun to research as older swords and fittings, I might post some picture.

 

Thanks again,

 

-Kyle

[Jamie]

Kyle,

Many swords brought home the war are actually ancestral blades

(remounted for the war). It may or may not be an old blade. Pretty easy to tell the difference after looking at the nakago(tang) and the blade itself. You might find it equally interesting researching the blade. Post pics and you'll get a lot of info, just as you did with the Tsuba. I think it's great that want to organize and preserve these tsuba.