Akao school Maybe- similarly constructed but different motif

[Mantis dude]

Hi,

 

A long time ago I had seen a tsuba from a board member that was unique made out of unrefined copper (aka mountain copper) and it had an applied copper rim. Then I found a tsuba in compton's Catalog attributing a depicted tsuba to the Akao school which was similar. What I found interesting was that the plate of both tsuba were decorated with a small punch but on the seppa dai a large dot pattern was done. I then found a geese tsuba (different then the pictured compton catalog) that was done in the same design with the punch marks. Recently on ebay there was a shakudo tsuba that also followed the same pattern. I am curious if people would agree that this is the work of the akao school and I thought people might enjoy just seeing all these tsuba. Thanks for looking and any comments appreciated:

[Brian]

I would love to know the answer to this, as here is a wakizashi tsuba that I got on one of my first ever swords, from Darcy.

Obviously same school.

 

Brian

[Mantis dude]

Very interesting and I am sorry quoted the wrong catalog - it is from Haynes auction catalog #9 number 262. They obviously liked that design element.

[Ed]

Hi Ken,

I held off on a response thinking those with more tsuba knowledge may reply.

 

I have seen a number of Akao tsuba, but never one attributed to the Akao school with those punch marks.

 

IMHO the "design" reference in Haynes is regarding the motif of geese in the mist (very popular Akao motif) and not the punch marks (if that is what you meant). The catalog does not depict this tsuba as Akao School but rather as Akao school style. Also, Haynes states, "they made shakudo tsuba with this design", again in both instances referring to the geese motif (IMHO). The early generations preferred other motifs but the later generations seemed to prefer geese and cranes.

 

They worked mostly in shakudo and shibuichi though iron tsuba were made. Shakudo being the most commonly seen. If I remember correctly, one of the early generations were noted as being the first ever to do sukashi in shakudo. Rich T. had an iron Akao tsuba with a motif of Abalone shells which may still be in the archives here on NMB. I couldn't find it but I did include two soft metal Akao tsuba photos.

 

Not to say there is no possibility of yours being Akao work, just that I have never seen such examples. Sadly, I have nothing to offer in regards to what school they may be from.

[christianmalterre]

i think the "reason-answer" may be much simplier than thought perhaps?

Akao were not produced as much than one may think perhaps-so it´s just natural,that there´s not much relevant mentioning in literature,but also in reference examples ben left.

Those depicted Tsuba here are all(at least for me)-very nice Akao Tsuba-however i do miss an earlier piece on which we could find the beginnings,and which would allow us,so to evaluate the latter ones....perhaps,but,we will see one exemplaire in next time?

Hope,there´s an collector reading this threat and ben willing so to show us some more...Laugh....

Me, i sorrowly do not have one of this group-either way i do like them and they do show much grace(for mine personal taste)

Nice post-and nice Tsuba here

 

Christian

[Soshin]

Hi Christian and Ken W.,

 

This tsuba I have might be a early Akao school tsuba. It was sold to me as a Ko-Shoami which I still generally agree with. The round mimi, large seppa-dai, and large bold abstract ji-sukashi design is characteristic of Ko-Shoami. The ryo-hitsu ana are shaped very similar to some Muromachi Period tsuba and would fit early kogatana and kogai. It is currently is not papered. I would like to paper it sometime in the future as I don't really have any idea what school it might belong to. Reading a shinsa paper and/or having a NTHK Q&A might be helpful and educational. I hope you find it helpful.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ed]

Research of this school is difficult at best, as it is true that there is not a lot of information available or at least in English (Like other areas, possibly a good deal more that is not accessible in English).

While compared to other more widespread and prolific schools the total number of tsuba produced were fewer. However, it is not so much that they did not produce a good number of tsuba, as that they worked pretty much exclusively for the Daimyo families. Therefore their work was rarely, if ever seen by the general public. This isolation resulted in the public never becoming familiar with the school, which in turn prevented them from being desired by the masses or widely copied by other schools.

 

Make no mistake, there are some very good Akao tsuba out there. One other problem is proper identification, if they are not signed pieces, many times they are thought to be Kinai, Shoami or even Akasaka.

 

Much like David's example which was sold as Shoami. And it may be or maybe it is Akao. Again, those punch marks throw me off as they are not consistent with any others I have seen either in hand or photos.

 

While scouring the web today, I did locate one example on Ricecracker with some punch marks around the nakago ana (see below). Unfortunately, it is not papered. As well, the punch marks are totally different than any of the others shown in this thread, making it anyone's guess as to it's legitimacy.

 

I have included some additional photos of Akao tsuba and attempted to scan some from the Nihonto Koza, but they did not come out worth posting. Most of the examples I found are iron tsuba. A few of them have been discussed here in the past.

 

The first three are papered to Akao.

The first is a gorgeous iron example belonging to Rich T.. Additional photos and a great write up can be seen on his blog: http://kodogunosekai.com/

 

The second was posted here several years ago by Steve and is a wonderful non-typical example showing the Shoami influence.

 

The third is papered to Akao, the other two are not papered but nice examples.

[Soshin]

Hi Ed,

 

It should be noted that there are two branches of the Akao school. The original school was based in Echizen in the early Edo Period. All of the early Akao work in unsigned. Later a branch was establish in Edo. Punch marks along the nakago it is not the only kantei examination point for the school. Let me look through my NBTHK magazines and I will post any helpful information.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ed]

David,

I didn't include one in the photos as I was unable to find a photo of one signed "Echizen". There is one in the Nihonto Koza signed, "Echizen no Kuni Akao Jinsuke Saku", but it didn't scan well enough to post.

[Soshin]

Hi Ed,

 

I found these examples in the No. 612 issue of the NBTHK monthly magazine (Token-bijutsu 01-2008) about the Edo-Akao lineage. Rereading some history of the school it looks like just about all of the generations even the early ones signed their work starting in the early Edo Period in Echizen. This is not to say that there isn't unsigned works as well. Hope everyone finds this additional information helpful. Looking at my tsuba I am more and more leaning towards the original opinion that it is the work of the Ko-Shoami or possibly very early Shoami school.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Mantis dude]

another one with the same punch patterns for sale but when I inquired if they knew the school - they said they didn't know

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0827981791

The Akao school definitely has masculine look for lack of a better word. Has a stout/strong look to them. Whether the tsuba I am inquiring about are Akao or not, there is a definite pattern covering many different looks although there seems to be a good amount of geese depicted. I really would love to find out about who made these.

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is another tsuba in my collection that could be Akao school tsuba. It was purchased over a year ago on NMB. The punch marks around the nakago-ana are characteristic of the Akao school in either Edo or Echizen. Ji-sukashi design is of a war fan (gunbai 軍配) family crest (kamon 家紋) of the Fujiwara clan. This type of open work is common to the Akao school. Comments and questions are welcome.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles