Heianjo Tsuba That Has Lost All Its Brass Or A Crude Imitation?

[zanilu]

Regards to all NMB members.

I have found on Yahoo Japan auctions some pictures of what looks like an Heianjo tsuba (82.4 mm x 82.5 mm x 4.0 mm thickness) completely stripped of all its shinchu inlay. Is this the case?

I mean, the incisions on the base iron are compatible with the incisions made by the engraver to fix the brass on the plate? They seem to be rather thin especially compared to the thickness of the brass inlay of similar tsuba (see heianjo-zogan-02) especially where the vines sould be.

What baffles me the most are the lines in the “flowers”. I have understood that on Heianjo zogan tsuba, for both hira- or suemon zogan, a sort of cavity of uniform depth with the same shape of the inlay was obtained in the base metal to fix the bass. But this is not the case. This is also true for the region where the leaves should be. Also puzzling to me is the presence of the punch marks (??) close to both flowers and leaves not present on similar tsuba (see heianjo-zogan-02).

I have also found the pictures of another tsuba (heianjo-zogan-03) that suffered a partial loss of inlay showing the same kind of lines in the flowers but no punch marks. For this tsuba the vines traks are larger than those of the mentioned tsuba.

I would like to have some opinions from you guys, since surely you are more experienced than me on the subject.

Best Regards

Luca

[dominnimod]

It's possible? Of course, but,in my opinion it wouldn't be a good collection or study piece as its deplorable conditions won't let you appreciate the complete work, it's kindda like buying the lower half of a famous painting, having great part of its composition stripped,it kindda loss its meaning, nothing good will come out of it.

Heinjajo was a school, but could also be described as a tendency imho. The main idea was common, but different approaches were done to reach it.

Regards

[kissakai]

A collector said try not to buy a tsuba with more than 10% of the inlay missing which is a good guide

I've been trying to replace a Heianjo tsuba for a couple of years and managed to get a better example (from the NMB) a couple of weeks ago

Try and buy one in better condition and more importantly one you like

[zanilu]

Do not worry Grev. I have no intention of buying it.
I was just curious about the inlay technique that seems to differ from what is usually associated with Heinajo zogan. Maybe Jose suggestion is on the mark about the different approaches.
I rather like the design and I have some of them in my collection.

Regards
Luca

[rkg]

Luka,

 

Pieces put in the Heianjo bin were made by a lot of different people over a long period time, and you see variations in the way the pieces were put in like this - sometimes you see just a groove, sometimes you see "punch marks" along where the inlay is, etc - I don't know if this is an age thing (the earlier guys used the punch marks to hold the inlay on and the later guys didn't), or if it is a technique variation between the various makers whose pieces get dumped in this bin (or a little of both).

On the "missing"inlay...  I had the privilege of shooting an early heianjo piece that had very little wear ( it was in the 2013 KTK catalog), and had a very overt Christian symbol on it so it would not have been used much after the Shimabara rebellion (unless the owner had a death wish, of course) - what, ~1638.  The first thing I noted was that the edges were sharp/caught on any kind of fabric (it like it stuck to my glove when I was studying it/trying to figure out the lighting for it).  So in addition to the "usual suspects" (inlay fell out due to damage/corrosion, excessive wear, etc), I was thinking that some of it could possibly have gotten pulled out because it would catch on -anything-/.  I also had to wonder if the losses had anything to do with the owners pulling it off deliberately because they got tired of their clothing getting ripped up.  In addition, even this piece had a surprising amount of inlay missing - one bit was probably due to corrosion, but the rest.... not so much.

Since then I've seen a number of pieces that are in -excellent- condition/were obviously valued and cared for, yet they still show areas of missing inlays, etc - like this piece:

https://www.facebook.com/266005023454853/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1022965847758763
http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/kiku_heianjo/kiku_heianjo_front/kiku_heianjo_front.html

Going one step further, here's a piece that appears to have been made with inlay grooves that were either never filled or large areas of the inlay were were removed for some reason (the surface does not seem to have damage consistent with it all falling off)

https://www.facebook.com/266005023454853/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1175352412520105
http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/wheel_heianjo_front/kiku_heianjo_back.html

 

While I'm not sure the piece above should be put in the "heianjo" bin (what, aizu shoami maybe?), you get the idea.

 

And here's a piece that would get put in the Heianjo bin with its inlay looong gone, but its been mounted and remounted again and again/was obviously valued by its owners:

https://www.facebook.com/266005023454853/photos/?tab=album&album_id=960037920718223

 

This had led me to start thinking that in the cases where the pieces obviously aren't rusty wrecks these losses are either tolerated or maybe even deliberately done/ and/or were "encouraged" as an aesthetic thing (think wabi sabi).

There is some evidence to support this supposition in the way advanced Japanese collectors regard these pieces.

I had the privilege of shooting a juyo onin tsuba which had  "considerable losses" (KTK 2016) - which was an eye-opener about the Japanese sense of aesthetics WRT these pieces/started me wondering if maybe this was viewed an aesthetic "thing".

I also talked to Bob Haynes about this, and his observation was that the Japanese collecting community back in the day considered heianjo/Onin pieces with up to ~10% losses (with no big pieces of inlay missing) as being "acceptable".

 

It seems to speak to the larger, almost Schizophrenic bifurcation in the Japanese aesthetic, where Perfect/Perfect pieces are highly valued, as are worn things....

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[zanilu]

Richard, thanks for such a wealth of information.
Have seen Heinajo tsuba papered by NBTHK to Hozon even though the amount of missing inlay is considerable as in the example. Maybe this does not stands for collector but it seems that the rule of the 10% does not always applies for NBTHK!

 

My original question was if it was likely that such a tsuba with such a fine carving was a stripped Heinajo tsuba.

So far this seems to be the case...

 

Regards

Luca 

[kissakai]

Loss of inlay affects the price - the school/attribution can't change

[zanilu]

[Brian]

Thank you Rich.