Nihonto Message Board

[RikRookie]

Getting interested in fittings...so heres my question. Still waiting for the "Lethal Elegance" book to arrive.

I veiwed a Tsuba online that caught my eye, and amongst the description it said,"shakudo-nanako". Eveything but that , I could figure out.

I looked thru the "Tsuba - a breif history" in the Nihonto Kanji Pages and looked up Shakudo.
-An alloy comprising of Gold and copper. Polished, it is a rich black with a wonderful lustre.

Nanako...however...I cant find, but my guess is all the tiny dots in the background.
If so...are they all chisled by hand? I would imagine it taking a while?

Rick

[Brian]

Rick,

Yep..nanako is the "fish roe" type raised bumps done in shakudo as a background. Done usually individually with a cup shaped punch, and is an artwork in itself.
Check out this thread: http://www.militaria.co.za/nih.....php?t=2478

Regards,
Brian

[wolviex_pl]

nanako-ji

Regards!

[Ford Hallam]

on an Ishiguro Masayoshi tsuba?

[Bungo]

a pheasant, not a hawk.

milt

[Mantis dude]

Shakudo is an important metal to see know if you are interested in kinko tsuba, or any other fittings as it was used a lot, especially with higher quality works. While beyond my knowledge, there are something like 11 or 17 grades of shakudo (I can't remember the number or where I read that). I believe the blackest color or with a purple hue is the highest quality- has to do with the amount of each metals in the mixture. I think I read somewhere that Shakudo was unique to japan. Goto and Kaga (among many others) used the metal a lot. It wasn't a cheap metal to use. In fact, one thing when looking at kinko tsuba is if a part was made solely with shakudo or was a corner cut and a layer was done over say an iron base (to save money). That goes for other quality metals. I have a fuchi/kashira where you can see how thin the layer was applied over the base metal. Then there are some pieces of inlay that are solid shakudo on some of my better pieces. I must admit some of those hawks done are amazing and skillfully done. One other punch style is ishime. It in some ways is the opposite of nanako, where nanako is neat and orderly (when done well), ishime is I believe referred to as stone finish and is more of a random style, it gives a totally different feeling. I actually saw a really high quality tanto mounting which used both in shakudo. The owner (a well respected, knowledgeable person) had never seen both used on the same piece. It was a very unique and beautiful mounting. Most of us didn't even realize the 2 different finishes until he pointed it out. There are some nice pics in the lethal elegance book but has been a while since I looked at it. enjoy!

Sorry if I am just adding random thoughts but trying to get the cobwebs off the brain and remember some of these things.

[Bungo]

fine nanako on iron and around beveled ( curved ) edges is even more amazing......................nanako.jpg files
http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=31#files

milt

[Ford Hallam]