Tsuba inquiry

[Thekirsh]

Hi Everyone,

I would appreciate any thoughts or information on this small tsuba which appears to be

"The Great escape"

 

Thanks Simon

[John A Stuart]

I love mieces to pieces. No, really a nice theme, of luck. This is a Nara 奈良 family work, I think, although I so far fail to recognise the last kanji. John

[Baka Gaijin]

Morning all,

 

Are they mice or rats?

 

I think the object they are giving their attention to is a rice bale, the sort of thing that Daikokuten stands upon.

 

http://www.nihonsun.com/2009/02/17/deco ... ice-bales/

 

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/daikoku.shtml

 

http://www.ashmoleanprints.com/image/67 ... -rice-bale

 

 

Cheers

[Guido]

  ERazer said:

Are they mice or rats?

There's no difference in Japanese, both are called Nezumi 鼠.

[Baka Gaijin]

Morning all

 

  Quote

There's no difference in Japanese, both are called Nezumi 鼠.

 

Cheers Guido

[Soshin]

  Guido Schiller said:

There's no difference in Japanese, both are called Nezumi 鼠.

 

 

Are rats called O-Nezumi (大鼠). Just a quick Japanese language joke. :lol: Overall the tsuba looks like a nice Nara school tsuba. How large is the tsuba? If it is on the small size I would say that it is for a tanto.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Baka Gaijin]

Afternoon all

 

I was told the term for rice bale is Tawara.

 

Cheers

[Ruben]

Hi,

 

interesting tsuba.

In my opinion these are rats, cause of the tails.

Especially the very left one shows a rippled naked tail.

 

greetings

 

Ruben

[Thekirsh]

Thanks everyone for the information, I will check out the Nara school works.

John - I've added a close up of the mei

 

David - the tsuba is actually perfectly round with an O.D. of 69 mm. I also noticed that it is the only tsuba I have come across that is slightly convex.

 

Cheers Simon

[runagmc]

Nara saku

[John A Stuart]

Yes, 作 saku. Perfect, just what the doctor ordered. John

[johnb]

So if mouse and rat are the same in Japanese, does that make our Disney chum Mickey Rat?

 

Love the tsuba!

 

John b

[Guido]

  johnb said:

So if mouse and rat are the same in Japanese, does that make our Disney chum Mickey Rat?

Nope, our anthropomorphic little friend is simply called ミッキー (マウス) in Japanese. He/it is neither considered a mouse nor a rat, just a cartoon character.

Sorry for going all linguistic on you .

[johnb]

Ahhh...In Indonesia he becomes Mickey Tikus...Tikus being either a rat or mouse.

 

John

[george trotter]

  johnb said:

So if mouse and rat are the same in Japanese, does that make our Disney chum Mickey Rat?

 

Love the tsuba!

 

John b

 

I'm a bit late to this thread, but if it helps the Mickey Mouse question, I heard that his father was a rat :lol:

 

I like the tsuba too...love the meeces. There was a tanto/wakizashi koshirae at the last Sydney Shinsa and it had mice dressed as humans in clothes...my favourite part was that the head of the kodzuka was a little mouse face looking at you through the hole in the tsuba...very nice!

 

About rats in the rice-bale...I think this is common in art and refers to wealth, ie, a person so wealthy that he/she doesn't worry about rats eating the rice...so in a roundabout way it means good fortune. Of course I stand to be corrected.

Regards,

[cabowen]

It's not that you have so much that you don't worry about losing a bit to the rats, it is that you have something in the first place!