What Do You Think About This 3 Tsuba

[Christophe]

I found this 3 tsuba, for me, they look genuine, and school is Soten? if I m not mistaken. One look like signe Mogarashi. They are carved with open work into iron.

What is your opinion ?

In advance, think's very much.

Christophe

[vajo]

I found them all very nice. 

 

Best 

Chris

[ROKUJURO]

Christophe,

if you like SOTEN style, then they are not bad. In fact they are nicer than the average stuff. You know certainly that a SOTEN MEI does not mean much unless there is a paper with it.

Unlike many SOTEN style TSUBA, the first one does not show a SAMURAI fight scene, but SHOKI hunting for a fearful ONI.

Actually and to my amazement, I have seen some SOTEN TSUBA wth relatively high price tags on them.  
 

[zanilu]

IMO they can be classified as mid range Hikone bori, i.e. Soten inspired copies made in different places around Japan when there was a high demand for this kind of tsuba. One of such places was Kyoto where other tsuba school were hired by Soten to fulfill the orders received, or so the common wisdom goes.

 

I like especially the one with the dragon. Even though not mainline nice tsuba nonetheless.

 

Regards

Luca 

[vajo]

I have two soten tsuba showing samurai and they are very worthy.

[Tanto54]

The first tsuba is a play on Shoki and Oni.  Actually it's Bishamonten instead of Shoki.  Bishamonten is one of the Four Kings of Heaven who guard against attacks of demons (oni). The tsuba shows an oni who has stolen a stupa (symbolizing Buddhist law) which the guardian king usually carries in his right hand.  The clues pointing to Bishamonten instead of Shoki are the stupa (which the oni is holding) and the helment/hat (Shoki wears a different hat - see pictures below).  While Bishamonten is often depicted with a yari or naginata, he also carries a straight sword like Shoki.  See the attached examples for the subtle differences.

 

Bishamonten:

 

 

Shoki:

 

[ROKUJURO]

George,

thank you! Very revealing!

[Christophe]

Sorry to thanks you all so late. All the infos are a great help. Thanks to George for the info about the first tsuba. Very educational. It's amazing how much we can learn.
Thanks again

[TheGermanBastard]

I like especially the 2nd Tsuba. Nice piece als fine condition. Definatelay above average!

[Higo-san]

Agree with Luis - the second one is worth a Hozon shinsa. The other two tsuba are also nice but the middle one definitely stands out with beautiful details (just take a close look at the eyes).

 

Best,

 

Chris

[Tanto54]

Dear Christophe,

 

The 2nd Tsuba depicts Tekkai Sennin.  I've written about him a few times before on the NMB.   He is an immortal who can breathe out his spirit to allow it to go on long trips.  Once he breathed out his spirit to allow it to visit his master on faraway Mount Hua.  Before his spirit returned, someone found his lifeless body, assumed he was dead and cremated his body, scattering the ashes.  Upon his return, he was forced to inhabit another recently deceased body. Unfortunately, the only available body was of a lame beggar, so he is often depicted in Kodogu as a bony beggar, leaning on his walking staff, turning his head to the side and breathing his soul out in a mist (sometimes there is a small figure of him in the mist).  In your Tsuba, his spirit is shown as the funnel shaped cloud going up in the tree.

 

The 3rd Tsuba may be Chinnan Sennin - an immortal able to conjure a dragon from a bowl.  However, he is usually depicted with a bowl in his hand, and yours seems to have something different in his hand.  Perhaps a splinter?  I seem to remember an old story about a Sennin that removed a splinter from a dragon's mouth, but I haven't been able to find any reference to it.

 

[Christophe]

Thanks for the new infos, A lot to think and more study necessary. I greatly appreciate all your information.

I will think about a shinsa for the second tsuba as Christ suggested.

 

Best.

 

Christophe

[TheGermanBastard]

Hello Christophe, since you are in Japan the shinsa is affordable. In general I am not to eager about getting Kodugu papered unless it is of soem importance / value. E.g. spending USD n a Hozon Paper will not work out with many Tsuba. I have seen people selling a 100 bucks Tsuba at 350 because they had 250 in the papers.

 

Your tsuba is a fine tsuba and you don't have to get an agent for handling the Shinsa and pay for overseas shipping so you should be fine. Let us know how it turns out. It is a nice piece

[Tanto54]

Dear Christophe,

 

I finally remembered the story about the third tsuba.  He is holding a needle - not a splinter.  The Sennin is Bashikô (Chinese Ma She Wang), and he cured a sick dragon with acupuncture in the dragon’s mouth.