Interesting Tsuba

[Pete Klein]

I found this tsuba recently and would like to throw it out to the board membership for a gander. It's one of the more interesting pieces I've come across and would like to see what you all make of it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John A Stuart]

Pete, could this have originally been a tsuba that copied the cup hilt rapier guard and subsequently shinchu used on the concave side to make it contemporary? Workmanship is totally different on each side. Wouldn't mind owning it. John

[Curran]

Hirado Kunishige-esque work inside a namban type plate? What is the diameter on this tsuba?

 

I thought the Namban was cupped initially, but the tsuba doesn't look as thick as it would be if it were inserted inside a cupped tsuba.

The silver is nice, and I wonder what that face looked like when it was all intact.

[Toryu2020]

Master of understatement!

VERY interesting tsuba...

-t

[christianmalterre]

Cool!-in fact-very cool!

Kunishige-here i would agree...

Namban-here rather not...Hizen sounds better for me here....

 

Pete-please be so kind so to provide us with the exact measurements-how thick is the mimi/and how thick is the Kunishige plate(looks like you could measure this on the ana?)

 

Christian

[Ford Hallam]

This one strikes me as being Hizen too.

 

My reasoning would be the shapes of the ryo-hitsu. To my eyes this speaks of a Higo influence (Higo neighbouring Hizen Province) and I tend to see this Higo-esque flavour as being indicative of much Hizen work as opposed the Hirado-Kunishige or Namban-esque work.

 

This is a Hizen tsuba (one that eluded my grasp :? ) that was on Ginza-Choshuya a little while ago. While the ryo-hitsu in this case are the more usual shapes I think there is some similarity in the way the plate is worked and the engraving with your example's front, Pete.

 

 

His personal name was Bensuke. He lived and worked in Nagasaki, in Hizen prov. He died c. 1800

The mei reads Tokin or Tohaba. The family are said to be swordsmiths (but not recorded) and as kinko fittings makers.

 

Comparing these two now it seems the nakago ana is very similar and there a similarity in the fullness of the kogai hitsu shape too, at least to my eyes.

[Pete Klein]

Here are the measurements -- sorry I forgot them:

7.64 cm round x ~0.4 cm thick (the inset plate is ~1mm and the steel ~ 3mm except for the mimi where it is 4mm).

The tsuba is flat without curvature. It appears that originally the steel was plated with gold.

 

PS: Ford, did you intend on including a picture in your post?

[Ford Hallam]

oops, sorry Pete. Pic now added

[Peter Bleed]

Truly a wonderful guard. I've enjoyed the comments, but will add a "guess." It looks to me like Chinese disc that I suspect was thinned and then hybrid with local work. It may have truly reflected two facets of an important man's world. The beauty of this suggestion is that to test it, one would have to remove the brass!

Tsuba like this reflect a very cosmopolitan phase of Japanese social history. They also must have been created and worn during a period of great affluence. This was a very pricey fixtures.

I am glad to have seen it. thanks.

Peter

[Pete Klein]

Thanks for all of your observations so far. I am finding them to be very interesting and helpful. Anyone else please chime in, no wrong answers here.

PS: does anyone have an idea/references to the specific theme of the steel side?

[Tanto54]

The steel side reminds me of the bottom lock plates (not the regular top lock plate) that I've seen on antique store house doors (kura do). That lower "key" hole is occasionally a slot in a rectangular raised ground (that would be about the size of this nakago ana) surrounded by an arabesque (see picture).

[Ford Hallam]

Pete's tsuba looks to me to have been a steel plate that has had the front face excavated to receive the shinchu plate into it. This suggests the shinchu is an addition the the original steel tsuba, either to hide some severe damage or the render the piece more interesting. It may have been conceived in this form from the beginning but I doubt it myself.

 

If the steel tsuba in it's original form had a similarly decorated front to the back it may have appeared a bit too "rustic". By in-setting the contrasting the slightly more sophisticated shinchu plate with it's chiselled dragon what otherwise might have simply been a fairly rough tsuba is elevated to something perhaps inspired by the aesthetics of the tea ceremony in the way the rough is juxtaposed with the more considered additional decoration.

 

I still think this final form we now see was done by a Hizen artisan though

[Grey Doffin]

Years ago I saw a tea bowl (chawan) that was assembled from fragments of 3 or 4 disparate chawan and lacquer. This tsuba reminds me of that bowl.

I agree with Ford. This wasn't made this way; it was assembled from 2 tsuba, likely each damaged badly on one side. I'm probably wrong but that's my guess.

Grey

[Soshin]

Hi Pete,

 

Thanks for posting such a interesting tsuba for discussion. I would say it was a heavily altered and likely repaired Hizen school tsuba.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Pete Klein]

Thanks to all for their input. A piece such as this does ask a lot of questions. Here are some of my own thoughts which include some of those already given. I agree with the Hizen attribution but would add that I feel it is early work. It might have been imported. The plate has the look of Kamakura Bori tsuba in texture and color and that it is solid and not 'Nanban-esque' sukashi inclines me to think in terms of late Momoyama to early Edo, early Tokugawa Shogunate time frame. Something which I immediately found interesting is the size of the kozuka hitsu ana. It is formatted for an O-Kozuka which were seen in this same time frame. However, I believe it was added to the original tsuba as the tsuba was modified to accept it as shown by the breaches in the motif and the cut into seppa dai. (There is an example of this exact type of silver rimmed hitsu ana in, 'Uchigatana Koshirae', pg. 123; see below). The kogai hitsu ana is much smaller and I feel it was a later addition, after the kozuka as there is no sign of a silver fukerin adaptation to the plate as the one placed with the kozuka. Both were placed prior to the later modification to the ura with the shinchu plate as it's design incorporates them in it's motif carvings. The original plate was covered in gold, now mostly lost which might lend one to believe that it originated as an accessory to an important koshirae for a katana which was then refitted at a later dates to at least two other swords/koshirae, possibly a dai-sho. (It is possible that the accessory additions were more ornamental than utilitarian -- hard to say for certain but O-kozuka were like Sunday handkerchiefs -- more for show than for blow)... In any case, careful observation of the nakago ana shows an earlier placement of sekigane, possibly from the first re-fit (look at the top of the steel side of the nakago ana and you will see there is a bi-concavity made previously, now vacant to the left. The original fitting was done with the simple crimping seen in the steel, the latter by sekigane). There is also an interesting problem with the mimi as under magnification you can see areas where the gold delineated motif extends onto it (look at the four o'clock position). What might have happened is that when the conversion was made to the ura with the insetting of the new plate the mimi was hammered a bit to fully crimp the plate in place thus diminishing it's thickness. As Ford stated, the ura of the steel plate was literally cut out and the new plate inserted, thus this tsuba has actually had two 'omote'! LOL Seppa zuri (seppa wear) is seen on both plates and hitsu ana fills indicating age. There is also a small area of verdigris at the eleven o'clock are at the edge of the shinshu plate, also indicating some age. I believe the indentations on the shakudo fills are an amateur attempt at cat scratch or whatever as they do not show the finesse of the other craftsmanship. The dragon is definitely Japanese as it has three toes and the steel side motif seems to be karakusa or some type of foliage, possibly chrysanthemums. It is possible that there was detailing to the gold work of the flowers but as there is no latent texturing to the steel I tend to doubt it. In all a rather nifty Sherlock Holmes'y piece of work!

 

 

 

This tsuba is part of a magnificent dai sho koshirae which belonged to Torii Mototada who became, under Tokugawa Iyeasu commander of Fushimi Castle. This is well worth reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii_Mototada

[christianmalterre]

Excellent!-in fact-Excellent!

 

i just have to disagree in just one single(slight point)(Sorry for this Pete!)

The three toes do appear equally in Chinese and also Korean art-not common-but they do!

 

Fantastic Tsuba!-mine very honest and sincere Congratulations! -(either way-but you do know that)

 

Christian