Spartancrest

I think the effect is the result of very good hammer work fine ishime, I thought for a moment it might have had silver foil at one time but the area on the omote with the silver nunome shows cut lines underneath as is usual so I can rule that out. I have seen a few guards with the part carved/part plain plate but tracking them down is the difficult part. Like a lot of pieces the more you study it, the more you discover, but there is always a little mystery still behind them. This looks like Shakudo but I can't find any information on it. Small image signed but I doubt we can read it, no information.

What had me a little worried was the Tiger's head would be partly obscured when the tsuba was mounted - there are a "class" of guards like this that may have been intended as gifts or presentation pieces and not intended to be mounted though likely yours has. This totally different guard shows a Tiger with part of it's shoulder protruding into the seppa-dai and thus under any seppa once mounted. Your tsuba depicts Sennin Bukan Zenshi and his 'pet' Tiger, he was a monk who shocked other members of his sect by riding his Tiger around the grounds of the monastery. This auction site has a similar 'dug away' carved tsuba leaving part of the plate un-cut, the text says cast iron but I doubt it. It has some fine gold nunome but the characters faces are done rather poorly. https://www.invaluab...ze-9095-c-dc94101b62

Well I have had to resort to an old 10.1 megapixel Cyber-shot camera from an Op-shop, my good camera just gave up one day. I am one of the increasingly rare and endangered persons who does not have a "smart phone" or indeed any phone - and yet I still live! [When they make it compulsory I presume they will give you a phone with your birth certificate? How else can they force you to have one? ] I am sorry the images are poor, does anyone else have a copy of the book?

Yes sorry the book is small format and I am stuck with a poor camera- sorry about that, wish I had a scanner. Odd how I just got the book delivered in time for this thread - funny how the universe works! Try these images they are the best I can manage.

Wow a big buyer's premium 30%! Is it just me being in the Southern hemisphere - or are the nakago-ana all the wrong way up in that auction? I hope you do well Grev

Some extra data from a Japanese book - similar "shippo" guard. I can't get a translation but it might be somewhere to have a look. [I don't know why this example has the three holes through the plate (?) Perhaps some sort of 'O' seppa may have been fitted to reinforce the nakago-ana (?)]

Mark S. That tsuba would fit in well with another thread dealing with tsuba designs on tsuba or other tosogu - I can't track that thread down as yet, maybe some one will remember where it is?

Hey sounds like me!

thick metal, not like the thin metal often found on tobacco ornaments, but some wear on the oval hole as if it fits a clasp?

I can't work out what this was for either? Tobacco pouch ornament? https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1126330745 35.8mm Wt: 7.1g

Okan, is that one in the Netherlands? Dutch got the best first pick outside of Japan!

There is a downloadable book here on the sale of "excess" tsuba from the Metropolitan Art Museum. Yes some museums do sell some [ or even all ] of their collections. There is even one odd case of the Wolverhampton Museum being forced to give back a donated collection of tsuba which was then put up for private auction only to be bought in its entirety and donated back to the same museum [1924]. Tsuba can do a lot of moving about.

And a few have ended up in a Dutch museum - so no surprises there! Personally I like this little cloisonné from the same museum https://www.rijksmus...llection/AK-MAK-1118

Just a note - don't buy any images through Alamy - they use public domain material which is freely available if you know where to look. In this case the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. https://www.rijksmus...llection/AK-MAK-1135 Another from the same museum https://www.rijksmus...llection/AK-MAK-1128 [Besides I did the book on this museum ]

Thanks Piers, some of the lines may just be unintended scratches (?) But I do wish they hadn't tried to make it "look" signed - didn't need a signature to sell it to me. This is the second one like this that I have [no signature and in Iron] I know of two others as well.

I just received this tiny tanto tsuba with a "scratched" mei on both sides of the guard. The scratches are faint, superficial and look very recent. I have outlined the characters but would like to know if they make any sense? The marks were not done with a chisel and look very much as if they were done with a needle. Any help appreciated.

Wow Hannah, this is probably the biggest cache of images I have ever seen of one tsuba - it is certainly an interesting piece and has generated a lot of interest. Some images give me the impression of the tsuba being made of rock candy [slightly melting] - which would not be the first time tsuba have been turned into lollies or the latest "bubble" drink.

http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21528 this one is signed : Hirata saku. http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21529 this one is signed : Hirata Ichizō Narisuke. (Seventh Master, d. 1816.) http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21530 this one is signed : Hirata (as a gold-cloisonné double-gourd shaped seal with red ground), and in roughly engraved characters on the other face, Tadakage. (Unrecorded.) http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21532 this one is signed : Hirata Harunari. (Eighth Master, d. 1840.) The signature is not shown [omote view only available] http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21533 this one is signed : Hirata Harunari. (Eighth Master, d. 1840.) but the signature is on the opposite side of the guard compared to the one above. (?) http://jameelcentre..../7/10237/10398/21531 this one is signed : Bushū no jū Akasaka Tada-toki [please note Bushū not Hirata]

There are a number of tsuba decorated by the Hirata school that are signed - however many of the tsuba were signed by the tsubaco [tsuba maker] not by the decorator, so it is possible that cloissone work can be signed by almost anyone. NOTES ON SHIPPO A SEQUEL TO Japanese ENAMELS by JAMES L. BOWES, 1895. Printed for private circulation: To the Members of the Japan Society. - - Amongst the examples we have seen are various sword mounts, the tsuba; which are executed upon iron, shakudo, shibuichi, and coloured bronzes. They are generally powdered with the ornamental forms associated with the school, rendered in gold cloisons and enamel pastes, translucent and opaque, the former often of exquisite quality; their works are further enriched with the spirals and other devices in gold wire, and they have the added beauty of skilful chasing, and, in some of the works of Harunari, we find shakudo, silver, and shibuichi blended or inlaid. Coming now to our illustration, we have a sword guard from Mr. Gilbertson's collection. No. 7, Plate B; it is an iron guard, made by a Miochin, decorated on both its faces by Harunari with small medallions containing blossoms, in opaque white, blue and pink, and translucent white, disposed upon a ground of translucent green. In addition, there are other forms rendered in gold wire and enamels. --- It may here be mentioned that many sword guards, which certainly were not made by the Hirata family, have been ornamented at a later period by them, sometimes with their signatures added, but oftener without, and it is necessary to bear this in mind when one meets with such guards, for the name upon them will more probably be that of the maker of the guard than that of the enameller who decorated it. The guards so treated and ornamented by the Hirata family are, no doubt, the genuine works of more or less celebrated makers, but during the past two or three years a number of spurious guards, produced for the market, have been decorated with devices in enamel, either after the Hirata style, or in a fashion which shows, by the character of the workmanship and the colours of the pastes, that they were made for export by the shippo workers of the present day [1895]. [ed. J. L. Bowes' booklet contains a good genealogy of the Hirata family.]

I include this link https://bid.sofedesi...-chinese-enamel-work which also shows the wire outline and presents the theory that though the tsuba is Japanese the enamel work may have been done in China [they do not present any evidence however] From the rather crude enamel I would say not Hirata work [or at least not that schools usual extremely fine quality] JMO [examine the Hirata work here: https://www.christie...m/en/lot/lot-4870268 ]

These three have the same wire-line marking the outline of the nakago-ana and the middle example has a much more refined version of the Tokugawa Mon. Sorry the images are small and one has a no-longer active link. https://www.beaussan...et-emaux-closearch=& This link has the best image and some information on the middle example [in French]

A comparable one here https://aggv.ca/emus...23A5A90E080202207F8E The nakago-ana is also distorted and the enamel/cloisonné is "sloppy". There may be a sekigane at the base of the nakago-ana but no other evidence of being mounted, no seppa shadow or chipped enamel from tagane-ato. Cloisonné Swordguard DATE 1600 c. Material: metal; iron; brass; enamel DIMENSIONS Overall: 8.3 x 7.7 x 0.6 cm

I don't think the base plate for that tsuba is Shakudo, but some of the inlay is very likely, the hull of the boat and many of the reeds are the blue/black colour of Shakudo. Have a look at this link for the many types of alloyed metals used by the Japanese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irogane The plate is most likely Yamagane or Suaka but the patina can often disguise the actual metal underneath.

Italian fashion tsuba! https://www.armani.c...411127375893467.html $480 (US?) A little expensive for my taste for a small cushion - Giorgio Armani or not! [They do come in other colours!]

Another example of the plum tree design [hidden away in the Southern hemisphere ] https://www.auckland...lection/object/15438 (Could I suggest it is in great need of a good clean and proper care!)