Cheep And Cheerful Onin Tsuba...

[rkg]

Hi,

 

I had posted a scan of this piece a while back, and since I had a lighting setup that was kind of close to what this needed I took a couple of minutes (literally) to get some more images of the piece - I didn't get the depth of field set quite where I should have, but at this size its fine - sorry about that...

The piece measures 77.3mm (H) X 77.2mm (W) X 3.81mm (T, max), 3.30mm (T, at seppa area).  I think its been cut down, but its curious because somebody apparently took some care doing this (it almost looks like some of the pieces that run off the edge kind of wrap around - its probably just due to how it was finished, wear, and the way the inlays were done, but...) - other examples of cut down pieces seem pretty brutally executed, and...

 

While there's a couple or rust spots that could probably stand a little attention, most of the "goobers" on the surface I think are old lacquer - some of it seems to be forming that rust/lacquer amalgam you see sometimes on old pieces.

 

And yeah, somebody had mounted this on an enormous sword at some point.

 

While most of the inlay is still there, I think the piece has been either worn down somewhat recently or cleaned because of the lack of patina on the high points - fortunately they didn't steal its age completely/left some  of the build up in the low spots on the brass.  Its a good study piece for early-ish onin work though - you can see that the inlays were cast, and some were actually cut and composited together here and there (I actually hadn't noticed it until Haynes pointed it out to me).

 

pics:

 

 

 

 

And just for grins, here's the scan I posted earlier - note the color difference - the color in the prior ones are more accurate (when I shot this, my scanner calibration software no longer worked so I did a half assed calibration with a white card) + the light sources are different - gotta love metamerism...

 

 

Now back to work...  Toooo much to do...

 

Enjoy,

rkg

(Richard George)

 

EDIT: I re-read this and realized it was unclear - the scan's color is off - the ones I just shot are "right" - if you look at the piece under daylight and a calibrated monitor)

[Pete Klein]

 

Cheep - Cheep -- Little Bill!  LOL

[TETSUGENDO]

Richard,

 

You have inspired me, I will have to try this technigue.  I think the image guality is guite good, all things considered, your 'standard" work is superb but this is better than I would have expected.  As for your tsuba, the care taken in reducing its size is noteworthy, some previous owner obviously valued it.

 

Pete,

 

Most amusing but I don't get the correlation.....could you enLIGHTten (pun intended)me?

 

Cheers,

[Pete Klein]

Steven - RKG used 'Cheep' insted of 'Cheap'.  That old advert was from my childhood in Chicago and the logo was, Cheep Cheep - little bill as in a bird tweeting and 'Little Bill' was their mascot.  It's all just a play on words at many levels which is something I have always done myself.

 

[TETSUGENDO]

Thanks Pete,

 

Got the play on words, missed the spelling.  Advertising sure has changed in presentation, yet the content remains essentially the same.

[Jean]

I love the play on word Pete « insted » of « instead » ...

[Ford Hallam]

Richard, I'm curious...when Mr Haynes suggests that these sorts of inlay are cast does he mean pre-cast and then inlaid or that the brass is cast directly into the cavities?

[rkg]

Ford,

That's a really good question - I've always assumed the former as a couple of books I think basically say "cast and then inlaid), but... I'll actually be seeing him the 10th, so I'll ask him more about that.

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

Richard, I'm curious...when Mr Haynes suggests that these sorts of inlay are cast does he mean pre-cast and then inlaid or that the brass is cast directly into the cavities?

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Richard

 

thanks, I'll have to put my cards on the table  and confess that I don't believe casting was employed at all, in whatever way. It simply doesn't make any sense either in terms of time or resources, fuel, materials etc. But to begin with I just don't see any evidence of casting in the objects themselves so the notion of casting seems superfluous.

 

regards

 

Ford

[rkg]

Ford,

I've been insanely busy, but I didn't forget about this... really...

 

I talked to Haynes some about this, and I kinda got the feeling maybe this is dogma - he commented something about the bits to be inlaid being made like/by the people making menuki at the time..  but a lot of the menuki from this period were done in repousse, right?  while these inlay aren't -that- thin, it seems like it would be more work than its worth to cast them - so are you thinking that they hammered them from the back to get the 3-d shaping?

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

Hi Richard

 

thanks, I'll have to put my cards on the table  and confess that I don't believe casting was employed at all, in whatever way. It simply doesn't make any sense either in terms of time or resources, fuel, materials etc. But to begin with I just don't see any evidence of casting in the objects themselves so the notion of casting seems superfluous.

 

regards

 

Ford

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Richard

 

no problem at all, I know well how it goes.

 

The truth is no-one really has any evidence of any of the technical processes of these artisans so it's all just uninformed guessing that has become dogma. Such is Japanese orthodoxy, and bloody hard it is to shift too. 

 

Looking at the objects themselves and thinking about materials, fuel for processing metal by casting, forging and so on, available tools etc. I see no reason to suggest anything more the most simple approach, that of simply hammering out brass sheet, cutting the flat shapes with shears and chisels (no piercing saws), inlaying and then finishing with punch work and/or chiselling. If I were to replicate this style that's what I'd do. 

 

Probably worth noting also that generally speaking these inlays are quite shallow, so making hollow forms like low lying menuki, seems unlikely. Having said that we sometimes see, where a larger piece has fallen out, that the centre of the ground is slightly higher then the edges. What this evidently allowed was the use of thinner sheet, that when pressed into place was higher in the centre and locked down lower on the edges. 

 

regards

 

fh