Iron Tsuba Of Lord Viewing Fuji

[JohnTo]

I would welcome some comments regarding this tsuba.  Essentially, it is a standard mumei maru gata iron tsuba with a brown patina, the iron plate is carved in slightly high relief and inlaid with gold and shakudo figures.  The kogai hitsu is plugged with shakudo and it was probably made in the 19^th C.

What I find interesting about this tsuba is the subject matter.  It is a landscape depicting a nobleman gazing at Mount Fuji, while a (lady) attendant kneels beside him holding his sword. The figures are comprised of gold, shakudo and silver.  Mount Fuji is carved in low relief and the cap is inlaid with silver to depict the snow.  The figures are standing by the shore of a lake/ocean with waves lapping the shore and highlighted in gold (a subdued Omori style).  A pine tree is carved in positive relief and also highlighted in gold.  The reverse shows a similar scene without the figures or Mount Fuji and a twisted older tree, perhaps the same one to depict the passage of time on the original scene.

I have found a tsuba with the same subject in the Church Collection at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EAX.10987) see below.  However, this tsuba is based on an ishime shakudo plate, rather than iron and the reverse (not shown on-line) is reported to show a charcoal burner’s hut.  In my opinion, the depiction of the tree and Mount Fuji are not as good as my tsuba.  The tree looks like a simple copper twig and Mount Fuji is flat topped and lacks the characteristic triple peak.  However, the Ashmolean museum has attributed their tsuba as being in the style of Shummei Hōgen (i.e. Kono Haruaki 1787-1860).  Personally, I would have thought that the simple depiction of the tree and Mount Fuji was not of the standard expected of his school.

I’m not saying that my tsuba was made by the same hand, but the unusual subject matter indicates that it probably came from a common book of designs and hence the same workshop.  I’m not sure if Kono Haruaki produced any works in iron, I’ve only come across soft metal, signed examples.   A lot of 19^th C tsuba makers seem to have made iron tsuba with mixed metal inlay, including the Goto, so I would not really like to hazard a guess as to the maker, or school.

The subject matter makes me wonder who it was made for.  I’m speculating that it was made for a daimyo, or some other court official.  There is a slight change in texture of the iron around the seppa dai area indicating that it was once mounted on a sword.  The reason I think that it may have belonged to a daimyo is the question ‘Why would a lower grade samurai wear a tsuba that depicts his lord apparently idling his day away, while some poor attendant has to kneel patiently by his side’?  Some might think that the scene flatters the ascetic qualities of the nobleman, but I believe that, if worn by a lower rank samurai, the subject could be interpreted more as a satirical comment.  The last thing any samurai would want to do would be to cause offence to his superiors!  It may have been made for sale to a western collector (it has an old collector’s number on the inside of the nagako ana).  However, in order to be made saleable to a westerner I imagine that it would be signed, even if gimei.  So apart from the usual requests for information regarding maker and school, any comment on the subject matter?

One final thought.  I have included a photo of the collector’s number on the nagako ana.  There may be someone out there who is trying to collate information regarding these.

 

Best regards, John (just a guy asking questions and trying to learn)

 

Church Collection tsuba is attached below in a Word document.

 

church collection tsuba.docx

[Greg F]

Nice Tsuba John. Mt Fuji and pine trees are some of my favorite Tsuba carvings. All the best.

 

Greg

[SteveM]

The theme is called Fujimi Narihira (富士見業平), and is from the Tales of Ise, section 9 "Journey to the East" (東下り). The subject is court noble (as well as noted poet, governor, and Lothario) Ariwara no Narihira. At mount Fuji in the month of May, he notices the mountaintop still has snow on it, and he remarks:

 

Fuji is a mountain that knows no season.

What time does it take this for,

that it should be dappled with falling snow?

 

時しらぬ山はふしのねいつとてもかのこまだらに雪のふるらん

 

https://www.city.takamatsu.kagawa.jp/kyouiku/bunkabu/rekisi/naiyou/yorozuan/yoro02/yoro02.htm

http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/opengadaiwiki/index.php/%E5%AF%8C%E5%A3%AB%E8%A6%8B%E6%A5%AD%E5%B9%B3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariwara_no_Narihira

 

 

The attendant is unnamed, and I don't think is crucial to the theme. Sometimes Narihira is depicted alone, and sometimes he is with multiple servants. I wouldn't read too much into the theme as social comment. I think it is just a poetic piece, one that any educated person would have been familiar with at the time. 

[Brian]

Don't overthink it too much John.
Sometimes a tsuba is just a tsuba. There is no chance this was owned by a Daimyo, or that that theme related to the owner in any way. Most swords weren't even owned by samurai if I am correct. There were merchants and soldiers and everyone else who owned them too, It's nice to fantasize sometimes, but don't over analyze too much as this will take you down the romanticism part of Japanese swords that rarely is based on reality.
An ok tsuba, but not at the level expected on high end swords. Themes were carried across many schools, and pattern books were shared and copied, and you will find the same theme amongst many different schools and styles.
Enjoy it for what it is..a decent tsuba with a story depicted.

[JohnTo]

Thanks Steve for the information.

I’m familiar with Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) composing a poem at the 8-plank bridge (yatsuhashi) at the iris marshes of Mikawa at the time of his banishment from Kyoto  I have a Kyo sukashi tsuba from the Goodman collection depicting this incident (described in the catalogue as banners flying in the wind), which I love very much (see Pics).  There are lots of different versions of this tsuba, some just the bridge (my version), some just the irises, some with both.  I guess that is what I love about tsuba, being able to find out what the theme is, especially when it is wrongly catalogued at auction.  I have not been able to find the definitive poem that Ariwara no Narihira composed at the bridge that expressed his wish to return someday to Kyoto.  One quoted example was:

殻衣きつつなれにしつましあればはるばるきぬるたぼをしぞ思ふ。

Karakoromo kitsutsu narenishitsumashi arebaharubaru kinurutabi oshizo omofu.

A Chinese robe I have worn so often, I know it as I do my wife. Having come so far, this journey rests heavy on my thoughts.

Reading that his banishment had something to do with his numerous dalliances with the ladies of the court I find it hard to believe that he should write a poem about his wife, or is he just missing his Chinese robe?

Regards, John

[Brian]

Like that tsuba very much. Maybe my imagination, but I can easily see birds flying around a waterfall with a river below. Very interesting.

[Curran]

That would be one of the nicest versions I have seen in a while.

 

Jim Gilbert had a similar one, and I briefly wondered if it was the same one:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/kyoto.htm

I didn't pull Kremer's book for comparison.

[SteveM]

Yes, you have a nice collection of tsuba, all linked to the Tales of Ise. That would be a very interesting theme to continue with. 

 

As far as Narihira's family life goes, if he had a Facebook account I'm sure his status would be "Its complicated". I'm not really well-versed in Tales of Ise, so I looked up your Yatsuhashi poem for a Japanese perspective, and was reminded of how deep and dense the world of Japanese literature is. And fascinated again at how the warrior class was also expected to be literate and well-versed in such esoteric things as 9th century court poetry. Firstly there are some minor typos in the Japanese you posted. The original should be:

 

唐衣 着つつなれにし つましあれば はるばる来ぬる 旅をしぞ思ふ

 

For this I like the Helen McCullough translation;

 

I have a beloved wife

Familiar as the skirt

Of a well-worn robe

And so this distant journeying

Fills my heart with grief

 

Although I wonder about the last word grief. It seems grief is too strong, and that the poet is feeling more a sense of ennui; a sense of melancholy and nostalgia for the things left behind, but not exactly grieving over them. The robe is a rhetorical device - and not a specific item of his. Actually karagoromo (唐ごろも) refers to an article of women's clothing. The original poem is full of wordplay which gets lost in translation. The beginning letters of the five lines, spell out the word かきつはた, or Japanese Iris, which is the flower growing at the foot of Yatsuhashi bridge that inspires Narihira to compose the poem. The word for hem/skirt is synonymous with wife, and the word for well-worn is echoed at the end with the homophonous "distant journeying", and so this inventiveness with the wordplay adds another dimension to the poem.

 

There is some ambiguity in the life and times of Narihira, so we can't say specifically why he left Kyoto - whether it was forced exile, self-imposed exile, official business, or some other reason. I think we should read this poem as a highly developed example of 9th century waka poetry, and not so much as a love letter to his wife.  

 

http://nbataro.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-16.html

https://japaneselandscape.wordpress.com/literature/yatsuhashi-iris-and-haiku-poem/

http://www.milord-club.com/Kokin/uta0410.htm

[JohnTo]

Thanks Jim for your version of narihira's departure from Kyoto poem.

 

Michin Curran.  Ive seen Jim Gilbert's Kyo sukashi tsuba on the link on this website.  The two tsuba are essentially identical but in mine the birds are flying upwards, in Jim's they are flying downwards.  Its impossible to tell if they were made by the same guy, but I like to think so and that one morning he thought 'I'm bored.  Kow what, today I will make the birds will fly the other way'

 

john 

[SteveM]

The word for hem/skirt is synonymous with wife, 

 

 

Too late to edit the above, but these words are not synonymous... rather another homonym pair. 

褄 hem

妻 wife