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Umetada Tsuba


rkg

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I'm still studying the piece (in among the 30 other things I've got to get done), but I thought I'd share the images since I actually took time to shoot one of my own before a catalog deadline...

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

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What can you tell us about it Richard, i see Mon, but what of the design?. When i look at designs like this i see everything, from war fans to butterflies, and generally miss the point, should there be one, that is. :glee:

 

Lovely tsuba.

 

Alex,

 

Less than I'd like actually.  the theme is a chrysanthemum and (I think) mons at the top and bottom. The design is one apparently associated with the Umetada - here's a blerb the PO had in the box with the tsuba, though its doubtful its by the same guy :-)

 

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The execution of the design is pretty sophisticated - its not quite symmetric, which appears to be deliberate to make for more visual motion - and I think what the maker did around where the kozuka/kogai hitsu would go is pretty cool as well, though who knows if it was just artistic or deliberate to allow you to use kozuka/kogai w/o having to hack on the design (or both).

 

I have no clue about the 4 holes, other than to note that they don't appear to be ato-bori.

 

The piece appears to be lacquered, with most of it still there.  The piece hasn't been screwed with, and from the crud in the hitsu, etc, I believe its old - like Momoyama period.  I'm still trying to figure out what the iroe is, at first glance because of the fine line width you'd think it was some kind of amalgum based fire guilding, but the surface of the iroe is really shiny - like a foil was used or something.

 

Now, back to work...

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

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Rich,

 

Great tsuba.  The photo of the "blerb" you include here raises interesting questions concerning the maker of this piece.  You note that the physical state of the guard suggests it was made in the Momoyama Period.  I don't disagree:  the various signs of age concerning the tsuba's condition, plus the size and exuberance of the motif point more toward this period than to Edo, I believe.  But what's interesting here is that Umetada Myoju (the maker of the signed guard above) is a Momoyama man.  So if this tsuba was not made by him, but is of his time, who might the specific tsubako have been who did make it? 

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Steve,

 

Good question.  Its tough because all you really have is 1) a design the umetada made a lot (with really good execution), and 2) surface/interior wall condition that shows a lot of age - and really, I'm not sure that's enough to get to a specific maker.

 

If you accept that its Umetada work, then If you look in Sesko's book, there are several somewhat conflicting genealogies shown.  Haynes noted that the shigeyoshi group/lineage/whatever was kind of known for this design. If you look through the geneaologies listed one claims there was a shigeyoshi listed before Myoju (who some say also signed shigeyoshi for a while/as an alternate?), a different genealogy shows a shigeyoshi as working in parallel with Myoju and several of them (with varying kanji) in later generations, etc.

 

I guess it could have been made by the big guy as well, but its not signed so we'll never know. 

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

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Thanks, Rich. 

 

I have to say, I don't have a great deal of faith in the genealogies for pre-Edo groups.  We've seen the question marks surrounding the genealogy of the Myochin family/group of armorers (at least pre-Momoyama), and the apparent murkiness of the origins of such tsubako schools as the Umetada and Akasaka makes me somewhat dubious of their published genealogies. 

 

You note that the Umetada made this design a lot:  were they usually of this sort of dimension, though?  This piece is, what, 86mm or so? 

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Steve,

 

As can be seen from Sesko's work, even the "experts" don't seem to agree on the early genealogy of the umetada group - and they were well known enough w/o resorting to all the er, embellishments to their family tree that the Myochin group is accused of.

 

If you're getting at perhaps it being made by a different group, again who -really- knows - if there's no smoking gun (signature), it could well have been made by tsubako Bob in on that street where they all were in Kyoto who churned out a piece to order that would be put the ko-shoami bin one week, another to be tossed in the early Umetada bin the next week, and topped the month off with a piece that could be relegated to the kyo bin of history :-)  (though again, this one's design/execution is really good, so....).

 

On the size, who knows - I don't see dimensions in that piece in the scan above by Myoju,  though there's actually a similar piece signed umetada on yahoo!Japan right now that's pretty close in size (though I believe made much later, the execution is nowhere near as good, yadda yadda):

 

https://www.sendico.com/yahoo/lot_f220093967.html

 

The mon is also confusing - that's the Takeda family mon, right?  would that really be put on a piece made in the kyoto area at that time?

 

Again, sometimes, maybe the old designations are best - old iron tsuba, very good :-)

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

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