Tsuba appreciation??

[goose710]

 

Gentlemen

for a while now (approximatly three years) i've been reading these pages and quite frankly i'm stumped as to what makes a tsuba pleasing to look at.

 

Plain round ones seem , well PLAIN to me.

 

ornate carved gold , silver ones seem gaudy to me

 

i'm afraid i don't get it.

Ok plain,simple = clean free of clutter???

 

but why then the higly carved gold encrusted gaudy ones??

 

although i can relate to the obvious crafmanship involved, what makes for that super tsuba???

 

enlighten this barbarian for i can't seem to make heads nor tails

 

I like Fords Tiger, and also some of his soft metal tsubas he's at times posted

 

Charles L. Grusovnik

[Alan Morton]

Hi Charles

 

this is a link to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts http://www.mfa.org/search/collections?k ... =1&rows=32

 

which is full of tsuba that are amongst the best in the world and can be magnified to viewed better, nearly 2000 tsuba at

 

one site.

 

Alan

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Charles,

 

your question is probably one many new comers to the subject puzzle over. I think it's a very important aspect to really think about carefully before anyone starts shelling out their hard earned cash. The answer, unfortunately, is not a simple one but I'll try and provide some frames of reference so that you might at least have a better idea about how to approach an answer as it might work for you.

 

First off, as to what makes a tsuba pleasing to look at. This is the easiest part;....whatever pleases you :D Seriously though, your own personal taste is always going to have a bearing on what you are drawn to. Not every serious collector would agree but there is no absolute hierarchy in terms of taste. Some would argue that old iron is superior to late elaborate soft metal...this is merely a subjective judgement.

 

Each type of guard, whether it's the materiel, the period it was made in or the specific school or artist ought properly to be judged according to the criteria that are appropriate to that piece. What this means is that there can be no "best tsuba" because you cannot compare lemons with apples, so to speak.

 

If we're speaking of Kamakura pieces they will generally have a slightly different set of qualities from similar works of the Momoyama period, for example. Similarly the qualities of well chisselled steel, like Choshu, Bushu or Kinai are quite different the soft earthy qualities of early Higo non-ferrous guards.

 

If we consider the more elaborate works produced by the Machi-bori schools, those groups who catered more for the wealthy merchant class, we are presented with yet another genre of work. Again, the many various schools within this type are all very distinct and varied. The works of the Nara school, the Mito, Hamano and Ishiguro...just to take 4 examples, are each quite distinct from the other. Of course, all of these different qualities and characteristics are what allow us to make categories when appraising work and a good appreciation and awareness of the degrees of quality of these aspects is the basis of connoisseurship.

 

Unfortunately there does not exist any coherent work in English that will elaborate on that these qualities are nor illustrate the different levels of quality that may be encountered.

 

To develop this appreciation requires that you look at one type, try to see the specific aspects that define that type and then compare pieces of that type to try and establish some sort of frame of reference in terms of these qualities.

 

The sort of questions you might ask about a piece when evaluating it could be;

 

1: What is it made of, is the colour/patina in good condition and how does it rate compared to other similar patina. Try not to let personal preference dictate the answer. You might really love a rich red copper but that doesn't mean a deep, wet and subtly varied iron isn't as good. Learn what the best qualities of each material are.

 

2: Consider the overall form, the outline and the relationship of the design or pictorial composition on the plate. How well has the decorative aspect been worked. This takes a great deal of careful study. One way to really begin to see this aspect is to try drawing the design or even tracing it with a pencil and tracing paper. This makes you really notice every detail and how it's been positioned. In good work nothing is incidental and every tiny part has been carefully considered. If you can learn to see this it makes spotting good work much easier.

 

3: Ask yourself if the workmanship is good. To do this you need to appreciate the different approaches you might see in terms of overall aesthetic expression. The incredible attention to minute detail and precision of the Ishiguro shool is quite different to the more un-contrived, apparently' rough and careless (note I say 'apparently' ) expression of Higo work. On the other hand the pictorial style of some of the Otsuki school works are no less refined and precise than the Ishiguro but they are more painterly so don't always appear to be as detailed.

 

Once you can discern the various approaches to the technical rendering you can begin to evaluate how well, from this technical point of view, this expression has been carried out. Is the detail really all that fine and carefully performed or is it, on closer examination, just a bit careless and rushed. Look closely at engraved lines or kata-kiri detail. Do the individual cuts/lines feel alive and do they have some sort of expression on their own...or are they merely marks cut into metal to outline a shape.

 

I don't suppose I've really provided much in the way of an answer to your initial question but I hope I've managed to at least suggest a way of finding an answer that makes sense for you. I could write a book on the subject and that's what the real journey into this amazing subject is all about, I think.

 

regards,

 

Ford

 

p.s. And thanks kindly for your appreciation of my own work

[goose710]

Gentlemen

 

Thank you for the replys, i've started to look at tsubas in a different way (the boston link way cool!)

 

Ford, you've given me a mini education , thank you sir.

 

Charles L. grusovnik

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Charles,

 

glad to have been of service :D

 

good luck....and don't hesitate to post any questions that arise as I'm certain the discussions that follow will inevitably be of use and interest to others also.

 

kind regards,

 

Ford

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Wonderful thoughtful reply to Charles question. I have learned something from just reading it. This little topic has been a great read. Thank you Ford, Charles, and Alan.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ford Hallam]

Hi David,

 

thanks for your kind appreciation, glad it was helpful

 

regards,

 

fh