Ford Hallam

It's the long lost tsuba of Momotaro's sword :D

Thanks Barry, for your kind appreciation Do you have a picture of the effect you're wondering about? I don't know of any special techniques that produce such effects other than careful carving, scraping, polishing and engraving....oh, and 20 or more years practice Sorry, I haven't actually got a full face image of the mei as yet...if I take some more pics I'll let you know. You can see a number of variations of my mei on these tsubathough.

Gentlemen, thank you all for your kind comments. It's reassuring to know that others appreciate some of the same aesthetics that beguile me. regards, ford

Since my return from Japan I've been making something of a study of the work of Umetada Myoju and his son, Shigeyoshi III. I'm particularly interested in the way they manipulated the plate, the subtle textures they developed and the earthy tones their alloys yield. These are my first 2 works in this exploration. If you'd like to see some more, detailed images and read more regarding what I've been up to you can follow this link to the Iron Brush forum.

Barry, no worries regards, ford btw; we hope to have some significant additions to the urushi section of the ironbrush next year. I'll keep you posted.

John, if a cashew finish is properly applied over a correctly prepared ground then it should not show any marks when you try to indent it with a thumbnail. I tend to use natural urushi (mainly because it's more fluid and is capable of finer applications) but I have experimented with cashew and in most respects it works very much the same. Bear in mind though that the only difference I made was to substitute cashew for urushi, I still applied all the usual ground work etc. This is, I suspect, not done when cashew is used as a cheap alternative. This is understandable but doesn't really give a very accurate impression of the usefulness of Cashew. It's not entirely synthetic either, it's derived from an oil extracted from the shells of Cashew nuts and is made up of urushiol, the key component (after water) of true urushi. As for I think this is only partially correct. Urushi is certainly hard...but hard wearing? A quick examination of old lacquer will reveal a great deal of wear, not to mention cracking, chipping and denting.

I feel this statement needs to be qualified somewhat ...if it looks like a repair then it may merely have been done by an inept artisan...if it was done by a suitably skilled artisan, on the other hand, you wouldn't necessarily notice a repair...it may actually be invisible to you as such. I've seen enough top class urushi restoration to know this to be true. Much of it by Mr Tomizo Saratani, Gunter Heckmann's own teacher. regards, ford

I would have to second what Guido said regarding Cashew urushi. Properly applied and finished I would defy even the most experienced collectors to tell it apart from regular urushi. It dries to exactly the same hardness and is capable of taking precisely the same sorts of finish. Like most things...it's how you use it that makes all the difference. Most amateurs tend to apply it far too thickly and use it like paint. Having said that I would have to agree with Keith's point...if you aren't a professional artisan with a reasonable amount of experience and skill then DON'T!

Hello Ian, ...that would most probably be the one by Henry Wilson. He was instructed in the rudiments of Japanese inlay-work and colouring processes by Unno Bisei. As for how one used fire coloured pieces in conjunction with regular iroe I can only imagine it was a matter of supreme skill and care in setting the already red bits as though they were gemstones. I'll let you know when I manage it ...

ah, naruhodo ..of course, thanks Koichi.

Hello John, yes, Ian described hi-iro-do here. In general, the addition of any trace metals to copper will result in colours other than pure red. The cleanest colour red on copper is obtained by the method Ian described; ie: by heating and quenching in boiling water with the desired red oxide layer comprising nothing other than copper and oxygen. It's quite rare to see on tosogu. Hi-iro 緋色 denotes scarlet in Japanese. [and hi is fire.]see correction below, this is not correct. The image I've attached below shows a sample I made.

Hi Barry, there are at least 2 videos in the Takumi series that feature polishers. I dig around in my cupboards tomorrow and see what I can add. regards, f

I'm with Stephen, neither of these is very good at all :? ...I'd pass. regards, ford

That's the view I tend to take also :D

yes...they're rugby fans, generally harmless unless you try to take their beer away

The myth of the crippled smith is a recurring theme in mythology. The gods demand payment for mastery of the elements of fire and metal.

ah...the little people...I thought that was everyone else ...and having spent enough time in Dublin, I know how they love the diddly diddly music

Hi Philip, it's all good...and we're all still cool I got what you were on about re; the breathing but therein lies a trap. I think you tried too hard to "fit" your explanation to explain something far more complex. If you really want to look for a specific racial, and physical, trait that may offer some clue as the apparent Japanese love of fine detail you might consider myopia In ancient Egypt it was customary for goldsmiths to be dwarves...is there a more pc term? but I don't really think there is any real practical reason for this. I've seen beautiful hand skills from huge Neanderthal blokes and utterly crap work from tiny, delicate lady jewellery design students ( small nostrils but good sized lungs...judging by the evidence :D ) ...go figure .

Cheers, John...glad to have mentioned it :D

Philip...it may well be very stressful for you, say, to try your hand at nanako but for someone, like myself ( and thousands of artists of the past) who spent/spend their lives working as specialists I can assure you very precise work is not at all stressful. It may require a great deal of discipline and concentration but so does playing a classical guitar ...and I doubt you'd suggest that's stressful. *edited* My nose is quite well proportioned, thanks :| It may well be true that as a nation the Japanese are particularly appreciative of very detailed work but without a fuller appraisal of what the rest of the planet has been up to for the last 10 000 years making statements as to who has the monopoly is a little presumptuous. Don't you think? Are not the copper plate engravings of Rembrandt, Holbein and Hogarth ( not to mention an army of journeyman engravers across Europe) at least the equal in terms of fineness and expressiveness of the best kata-kiri and kebori work of the kinko tradition? ...and what exactly are you comparing? Simply the actual size of the bits involved in inlaying a piece...the degree of expression in a very small face,...does a tiny face that's not very good beat a slightly bigger face that expresses real emotion....at what point does sheer minuteness beat sensitive art? As a start you may like to browse this book on a selection of some of the finest Western gold and silversmiths, 850AD ~ 1900. Goldsmiths and Silversmiths by Hugh Honour In the field of nunome-zogan you only have to compare the stunning creations of the Zuloagas of Spain to recognise that perhaps there the Spaniards may take the title of the finest workers. I have the greatest respect and affection for the Japanese and specifically their metalwork culture, I've dedicated my own working life to it, but I really dislike these sorts of "discovery channel" type "who's the best" speculations. I think it utterly trivialises human achievements and creates very blinkered thinking. respectfully, ford

Doing nanako work isn't stressful at all...no more so than knitting. :D if you know what you're doing and as John has already been said, the Japanese are by no means the only nation to excel at very fine work. Have a look at the granulation work of the Etruscans (7th Cent BC), the examples of Celtic metalwork (5th to 7th Cent AD) in the Dublin National Museum or the miniature wood carvings done by the Flemish school, to name just a few. Dedication, perseverance and an affluent and demanding clientèle...is all that's needed. In general, we're healthier, live longer and are safer than at any time in history...all it takes is for people to care enough. If the market doesn't appreciate the work...or care, the skills disappear. If you want to show your concern buy the work of a modern exponent...before they're all extinct! regards, ford

always a pleasure, Reinhard regards, ford ( an equally infirm 47)

Reinhard, you're quite right, I doubt I'll be able to convince you on this one I do have to ask the obvious question though; If Umetada Myoju ( for example ) made his tsuba, about 400 years ago, with this look of age etc, as you maintain, how then have they survived for 400 years without any natural ageing?...or does it slowly replace the original, artificial effect. If we allow for some natural ageing then how do we separate the natural from the artificial given that you maintain the original artificial aged look was so skilfully done? Seems to me Occam's razor solves this dilemma ie, the simplest explanation, that requires the fewest assumptions, is most likely correct. I am aware of the various, quite obvious, tsuba that do try to evoke an aged, or antique look but those seem to me to very different techniques. Matashichi's brocken fans tsuba relies on the design to evoke an aged look or do you mean he meant to suggest the fans actually had worn away on the tsuba? Incidentally, the Umetada family apparently begun using a process called "suri hagashi", sometime in the 18th century, which is essentially a gilt finish that has been artificially worn through to simulate exactly an antique look. Mitsuoki Otsuki used this effect also but this is quite different from the degree of contrivance you appear to believe was carried out. With reference to your Masanaga tsuba it seems to me that the wear on the shakudo leaves is very clear. Notice how some of the engraved lines depicting veins have completely worn away. The tiger also, is quite worn. The kata-kiri is no longer crisp at all and I can't see any of the typical fine marks that usually indicate the fur. I don't know if this theory regarding artificial ageing is your own or something you've been taught in Japan but I genuinely feel it's a precarious concept at best. Still, we can agree to disagree :D ...I just wanted to offer an alternative view, as I so often do regards, ford

Reinhard, with reference to the MASANAGA tsuba you've shown, how can you be certain that the appearance as it is now is exactly as was when it was first made? From my perspective this looks to be perfectly natural wear, tear and ageing. I agree, the area around the seppa-dai looks very odd. This sort of staining looks suspiciously ( to me) as though some-one has used a commercially available touch up patina solution to try to blend in the worn patina where the seppa rested. Certainly, no professional kinko-shi would leave such inept looking marks around the dai like that. I love the pose of the tiger btw...I may steal it for my own use sometime I don't see this as a deliberate artistic contrivance at all, it's just a perfectly aged tsuba that may now be said to exhibit a certain degree of wabi and sabi. Nothing to do with the original artists intentions. I'm sorry to disagree with you, I respect your opinions, but I fear that this could be a very slippery slope. Before long we'll have all sorts of buggered up metalwork being extolled as exemplars of wabi/sabi and I think we ought to far more selective about what we accord such sensitive status. Going back to the Myoju tsuba you posted also, I think that this too has merely suffered ( and I do mean suffered, poor thing. I reckon I could sort it out nicely though ) the effects of time. It's true that there was a strong attraction among the warrior class, of the Momoyama period, to the sombre and understated aesthetic ideals of the tea ceremony but the more exuberant artistic expression of artists such as Tawaraya Sotatsu, a contemporary of his, is clearly where Umetada Muoju drew the inspiration for his loose and lyrical brushed decoration. His avant garde use of his, now characteristic, coloured grounds for his bold brush work inlay must have been quite striking when new and well expressed the vibrancy of the times. I don't think any art historian will ascribe the ideals of wabi/sabi to the decorative painters of that period. That his tsuba have, in many cases, aged well and now exhibit these qualities is something we need to see through to get a glimpse of the true, original artistic urge of the artist. I read recently that Myoju may not have been a supporter of the Tokugawa and thus wasn't part of the "inner circle" of artists serving the shogunate. Was his client base perhaps the newly wealthy Machi-shu (merchant) class? and could this be part of why he diversified into tsuba production, no orders for swords. Just speculations.... but worth considering, I think respectfully, ford

Reihard, got caught me...now everyone will know where I gained all of my knowledge about patination....aaaargh! :? I take you point though...I suppose I've become a little blind to those sorts anomalies as over the years, as I've learned better, I simply don't read those sections regards, Ford