Another Hirata Hikozo utsushi...

[Ford Hallam]

As some of you will know I've been having something of a love affair with the work of various Higo artists over the past year or so. The overall aesthetic as expressed by artists like Hirata Hikozo has had a particularly strong impact on my own work and one way, for me, to delve ever deeper into his mindset is to recreate these pieces. These study pieces are generally termed utsushi and the point of the exercise is to better understand why and how the original artists did what they did. I find this sort of investigation invaluable in terms of better understanding the guiding principles and spirit of the tradition...at least from my own subjective point of view.

 

This is a tsuba I've just completed. It's a pretty faithful copy of a well know piece and incorporates many of the traits that Hirata Hikozo is most celebrated for.

 

As a rule I don't attempt to simulate age on my work in any overt way but after studying the work of Hikozo and others in that group I've come to the conclusion that certain effects that might be seen as a consequence of age were in fact deliberately affected when the pieces were first made.

 

This piece incorporates the results of some of my experiments into this sort of finish, details of which I may elaborate on some time in the future...so don't ask me to reveal all my hard won secrets just yet

 

 

 

The body of the tsuba was forged down from a water cast ingot and is roughly 4mm thick in the centre and 2.5mm thick at the edge. The rim is an applied yamagane based shakudo in the Odawara style. These are not soldered to the body but worked into place cold....it's just more magic :-)

 

 

I thought about not signing these sorts of works but I'd hate to see them being misrepresented at some point in the future. The circular punch marks (kuchi-beni) around the tang opening (nakago-ana) are considered a sort of signature of Hirata's but also add a great deal to the overall composition so I felt it important to incorporate a similar effect into my version. Putting my signature on the front as well would have simply crowded the design.

 

 

 

These images are only the first ones I've taken and don't actually show the full range of tone in the patina. As I achieve better images I'll be adding them to an on-line gallery and will add a link here.

 

The piece is available for sale and at a fraction of the price you'd expect to pay for a second hand one

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ford

[paulb]

Hi Ford,

A happy new year to you. As always I am staggered by the quality of your work. This is realy beautiful. I had the chance to look again at the DVD of your tiger project over the holiday and the whole family sat awe struck watching you create that.

Thank you for sharing this

Best Regards

Paul

[John A Stuart]

The Keating of tsuba. I mean this in the best sense Ford. John

[Bugyotsuji]

If we are allowed to gawp and give praises uncomprehendingly, then please allow me to join the queue. Going on first, second and third impressions alone, I have to say what a great tsuba.

[Bazza]

MMMMMMMM... Magnificent. I'm blown away. Would love to own it, but just to see it is extremely, very extremely satisfying. Wonderful work Ford, just wonderful. To say "congratulations" on your achievement seems almost trite in the face of the piece and its quiet strength. I look forward to your revelations on the colouring technique as copper/yamagane and its colour is my favourite next to iron.

 

Best regards for the New Year and your continued success,

Barry Thomas

aka BaZZa.

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Thanks for providing photos your most recent work in creating a utsushi of Hirata Higo masterpiece. Is there any chance to see photos of the original Hirata school Higo masterpiece. I have been thinking it would be a good source of discussion comparing and contrasting the workmanship and technique. For example are there some techniques that have been lost and can't be duplicated in the modern utsushi that are present in the original Hirata school Higo masterpiece? Looking at the Umetada school during the Edo period this often happen. Other tsubako of that school were unable to duplicate some of the techniques of Umetada Myoju. You also see this with moderm made Nihonto with modern toshi unable to reproduce a koto ji-hada.

Your work is very wonderful. :D Far better then the one I purchased which overall I feel isn't that bad. I will mount it on a Budo training Nihonto sometime in the future. Below is a photo of it for reference.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ford Hallam]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for you very generous appreciation. and a very happy and prosperous New Year to you all too.

 

John, I hope it doesn't come to that...doing a Keating , although it's always a temptation :D

 

Hi David, I'll add a scan of the original later when I get a chance.

 

You may be surprised to learn that the biggest difference in the way I go about making utsushi studies and how the subject is approached in Japan to day has to do with the fact I actually make all my own alloys and work from water cast ingots. Modern makers tend to use a very limited range of commercially produced plate. (Standard copper, shakudo and 3 different grades of shibuichi) The second issue would be the whole subject of patination and the development of tonal subtlety and variegation. You simply don't see much, if any, today. Part of the problem is a poor education in the entirety of the tradition. There are no extant old schools so we're left trying to teach ourselves what constitutes the art of tsuba making and what the essential values and qualities might be. In this I follow 2 distinct approaches, on the one hand I conduct technical and artistic analysis and utsushi studies and one the other hand I attempt to find my own aesthetic voice within the continuum of tsuba making as an art-form. In this I'm pretty much in the wilderness.

 

You mentioned the Myoju style, today no-one in Japan is able to replicate the shakudo into shinchu look because they are stuck using commercailly produced brass and this combination simply doesn't work. I was able to achieve it when I did my version (as shown below) because I had a suitable piece analysed and I recreated the alloy myself. The slightly raised inlay is also a technique that, as far as I'm aware, has not been reproduced in shinchu by anyone else.

 

 

When we talk about technique generally we mean the specific technical process but a very major aspect of the application of technique is the skill and sensitivity with which it is used. Sadly, these aspects that are what are most important in keeping a tradition alive cannot be maintained by hobbyists who make one tsuba a year...and the same style at that.

 

As for the characteristic finish of much Higo kinko work I'm afraid it's all gone and now remains for us to try and understand how and what they did, as I'm attempting to do, by means of careful utsushi study.

 

Hope that helps explain where the art form is at today.

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Thanks for the photo of the wonderful modern utsushi of a famous Umetada Myoju tsuba. Here is a scan of a similar Umetada Myoju masterpiece notice the similar inlay work and richness of the patina. The mei is a work of art in of itself. There was one very similar to yours but I don't have a photo or scan of it that I think you used to make your utsushi.

 

 

Here are some modern tsuba done in the Hayashi Higo school style by a living national treasure while he was alive in the late Showa period. He is now decease. His name is Yonemitsu Mitsumasa. Both tsuba by him are signed Higo Yonemitsu Tahei Mitsumasa. He was grandson-in-law of Tanobe Yasuhira who was one of the last Hayashi Higo school masters. This is taken from the 02-2010 issue of the Token-bijutsu Issue number 637. This is just to provide an example of excellent work still being produced in the area of Higo tsuba in Japan. I doing this so that people don't get the idea that my tsuba is the finest being produced in Japan in modern times.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[CurtisR]

Just sitting back - blown away. Beautiful new piece, Mr. Hallam and the old masters posted with it, well, just "wow". Looking forward to the new/additional images!

 

Happy New Year,

 

Curtis

[Ford Hallam]

Hi David,

 

here's a link to a collection of images of Myoju works that I used as the basis of my own study. The one I based my version is there, as is the one you posted What I felt was that Myoju's own "technique" developed in subtle ways but that also there are some quite significant general differences in a few of the samples that made me feel they were not by the same hand.

 

I know the work of Taihei Yonemitsu very well and they really are pieces that need to seen "in hand" to truly experience the workmanship. Really breathtaking I have a 30 min film of him, that's a terrible 3rd generation copy of a copy, yet is one of my most precious bit of archival film.

He died more than 30 years ago so I don't think we can point to him as an example of the best of what's being made in Japan today I'm afraid. I understand what you mean about using his work to contrast the piece you recently acquired though.

Here's a link to some more images of his work and of him working etc.

 

If you're interested to see some short films, in Japanese unfortunately, of another 2 modern era kinko-shi you find some on my YouTube channel.

was a professional and was trained in the classical manner in a direct link with the past.

 

on the other hand was a dilettante (I mean this in the original sense of the word and not at all in a negative way) and had a regular job as president of the Mikimoto Pearls Co.

 

To my eyes there difference in the way the work and their technique is quite striking. Sadly both men are now long ago gone from this world.

 

Hi Curtis,

 

thanks so much, glad to heat the work is having such a positive impact.

 

And just to add some more background for those of you who may not have seen this before

that shows copper (actually shakudo in this instance but it looks the same) being water cast and the subsequent forging to a basic tsuba form. This is essentially how it was done in per-industrial Japan.

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Thank you so much for providing so much more additional information. I find it really helpful to my study and deepen my understanding of the subject. In your collection of Umetada Myoju tsuba it has the one I was thinking of which reminded me of your tsuba. It is the first tsuba in your photo list. There is another Umetada Myoju tsuba that I consider to be a masterpiece. Once I get home from work I will try to scan a copy of the photo. It is a kinko tsuba I think of shakudo or do with hira-zogan (flat inlays) of gold, silver, and red copper. It would be great if you could make a utsushi of it.

My tsuba while not bad is just about average in quality for a Japanese modern made Higo style tsuba. Likely not by someone who is a professional tsubako. I will mounted it on my training sword for Batto. Now I just need to find a matching set of other modern fitting. Hopefully the NMB will help with that. More information about Yonemitsu Mitsumasa (1888 ~ 1980). He was in his upper 80s when he made the two above examples. The saddest part of his story is that he was not allowed to use gold in his work during World War II.

 

P.S. Curtis, you can learn much from a discussion like this. Happy New Year!

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Peter Bleed]

I have greatly enjoyed this post. Thank you, Ford!

Peter

[Ford Hallam]

  Quote

There is another Umetada Myoju tsuba that I consider to be a masterpiece. Once I get home from work I will try to scan a copy of the photo. It is a kinko tsuba I think of shakudo or do with hira-zogan (flat inlays) of gold, silver, and red copper. It would be great if you could make a utsushi of it.

 

Hi David, anything is possible...just cross my palm with silver :D

 

Glad you enjoyed the conversation, Peter

[Jean]

I love these tsubas, that's all

[Ford Hallam]

merci bien Jean.

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Here is the Umetada Myoju tsuba I am referring to. The different metal inlays are just wonderful. Sorry the book wasn't easy to scan so I wasn't able to get the whole tsuba in the picture.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ford Hallam]

Hi David,

 

it is a beautiful example, isn't it? Looks to me to be a shakudo ground with 2 colours of gold, silver and copper inlay. Those inalys are actually hellishly convoluted and complex shapes and bear in mind that image is about twice the size of the actual work.

[runagmc]

In the tsuba above, I would think the groove cut around the edge would make the inlaying difficult.

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is a better photograph but is black and white of the Umetada Myoju tsuba in question which is ranked Juyo-bunkazai (Important Cultural Asset). It is take from the NBTHK Token-bijutsu 11-2009, Issue #634. I would agree the groove and raised rim would make the inlay work harder.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ford Hallam]

Adam, David,

 

actually the raised rim doesn't really present much difficulty to an experienced artisan at all. It's no different to applying inlay to any uneven surface.

 

What is really impressive about the work is the fluidity and delicacy of the inlaid elements. Consider for a moment how you'd go about cutting out those undulating ribbons from sheet metal that's around 0.5mm thick and there's very little room to file up the shapes after they've been cut out. The whole effect of a very fluid painting is completely dependant of these little pieces being perfect before the inlay work even begins.

 

If you're interesting in seeing some images that illustrate this process you can see some here.

 

There's a "forward" button at top right to advance the images and see the rest of the sequence.