JohnTo

The term ‘Yoshiro Mon Tsuba’ seems to have become a generic term to describe iron tsuba inlaid with brass sukashi mon (crests, badges) and no longer seems to refer to the famous master of the school, Koike Yoshiro Naomasa, who lived in the third quarter of the 16th century. I am not a great admirer of brass inlay tsuba (preferring gold, silver, etc), but have been fortunate to have acquired some examples of brass inlay amongst job lots at recent auctions. I thought that I would share some observations on my latest purchase, catalogued as ‘Kaga Yoshiro’. The iron base of the tsuba is eight-lobed, rather than the normal round shape (8.0 cm high, 8.0 cm wide, 0.4cm thick) with a background inlay of water weed (with the usual loss of some of the inlay, less than 10%, which, as I have previously posted, I put down to galvanic corrosion). There are eight brass sukashi mon inlays, each inside a brass ring and the tsuba has the normal pair of kogai-kodzuka hitsu ana, also rimmed with brass. Like most Yoshiro tsuba it is unsigned (mumei). Trawling through various websites, books and old sale catalogues, I noticed two unusual features about this particular tsuba, namely the shape and method of inlay. Out of 21 tsuba that I located, 18 of them were round, one slightly rectangular with rounded corners, one mokko and one cruciform (signed Koike Yoshiro). No other tsuba had the 8-lobed shape of this one. I think that Yoshiro tsuba were made primarily in Kaga and Bizen provinces and signed examples that I found were inscribed ‘Koike Yoshiro’, ‘Goto Hashichiro’, ‘Hirata Doden’, ‘Saburota’ of Bizen and ‘Saburodai’ of Bizen. The Goto signature (if genuine) indicating that this type of tsuba was also made elsewhere. I noticed that although most examples were labelled Kaga Yoshiro, some were Bizen Yoshiro. In general, those attributed to Bizen seemed to have more rectangular hitsu ana (is this a kantei point for attribution or did someone assign such a tsuba to Bizen and others just followed suit?) The only multi-lobed monsukashi tsuba I found were all iron. Sasano, #269, shows a 10-lobed example attributed to 1st generation Masashichi of the Hayashi school and another was attributed to Higo Hayashi Matahei. Is mine a rare example, representing less than 5% of an admittedly small population? The other unusual feature is the sukashi mon inlay themselves. In my ignorance of tsuba inlay practices I had assumed that these tsuba were all made by hammering a slightly undersized piece of solid brass into the round holes in the iron plate resulting in a tight fit, polishing the surface flat and then piercing the sukashi mon design. This technique is described in the Nihon To Koza VI, page 21. Evidently this was done in most of the examples that I came across as the rim of the mon varies in thickness and is evidently part of the overall design (see example in Additional Information document). One of the mon in my example (at the 2 o/clock position) is set slightly back from the surface of the brass rim at the front and stands proud at the back (less than 1 mm). Obviously the mon has been prepared separately and hammered into position with the brass ring around the hole having been inserted previously. The inlay has slipped or been put in sloppily. Evidence for this observation also appears in the joins in the brass rings, which can be seen in some of the inlay. To add further weight to this observation, I found a tsuba for sale in which the entire inlay mon appeared to had fallen out, or been removed, leaving just the brass rings. This tsuba had been awarded a NBTHK Hozon and was described as Kuyomonsukashi Mizumochirashizu ’, which I painfully translated from the Hozon as Kuyo-mon sukashi with scattered water weed, the Kuyo mon being the 9 luminaries or celestial bodies, the crest of the Hosokawa clan (the ninth being a larger central circle, not actually delineated in this or my tsuba, but presumably represented by the seppa dai). The Hozon certificate seems to identify the tsuba as mumei Heianjo, not Yoshiro. I thought that it strange that this tsuba was awarded a Hozon when the mon were missing, but I assume that the NBTHK decided that this was the original design. My tsuba has the same water weed design as this one, so is mine a Heianjo tsuba originally with the Hosokawa kamon that was converted to a Yoshiro design at a later time by hammering in the brass crests? A copy of the NBTHK certificate and Hosokawa kamon is in the Additional Information. So what initially appeared to be just another standard Kaga Yoshiro tsuba has given me hours of investigative pleasure and raised a few questions. A final question. The inner sides of the inlay are covered with verdigris (and brass polish?). Is it OK to clean the sukashi with a dental flossing brush to remove loose material, or should I leave alone as part of the age patina of the tsuba? As always, comments on my observations welcome. Regards, John (Just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Hi Sergei, Can't really say why the nagako ana is that odd shape, other than to speculate that it was mounted on a pole arm, jitte etc. I have become iterested in Yoshiro mon sukashi tsuba, having recently acquired one. From the examples that I have seen it seems that the Yoshiro group spit into the Kaga and Bizen groups. Unfortunately most of the works are unsigned so it is difficult to judge the validity of the assignments of tsuba that I have seen (maily in books and internet). There does seem to be two styles of hitsu ana, the usual kudzuka/kogai pair and the rectangular shaped ones, as your example. I wonder if this is a kantei point, the rectangular ones often seem to have been ascribed to the Bizen group. The other interest that I have is the way that the brass mon have been inlayed. Your excellent photo shows that the mon inlay is a solid block of brass that has been pierced after inserting into the inlay. This appears to be the most common way. In my example (which I shall post when I have got all my thoughts together) brass rings have been inserted into the hole and then the carved mon pieces hammered into place. regards, John

Hi Ford, I believe that the depiction of a well head represents the ceremony of wakamizu, the drawing if the first water from a well on New Year's Day. I have a tsuba that shows this, hence the garlands around the tree. Best regards, John

Hi Peter, I agree that most of the literature describes shibuichi in various shades of grey-green, apart from kuro shibuichi, which is black. Nonetheless, the brown alloy that I see in kodogu at the London auctions is described as shibuichi. The only other shibuichi item that I have is the first piece of kodogu that I bought (not attached to a sword), back in 1975, at Sotherby's. It is an Omori waves style fuchi/kashira and is a chocolate (between milk and plain) brown. As a result of owning this I always take a particular interest in Omori wave pieces when they come up. To my best recollection they were always described as shibuichi and are chocolate brown. This is why I asked Ford to comment regarding patination. We are all trying to improve our knowledge base. Maybe the auction houses are using the wrong terminology, some of my pieces were badly catalogued, including a black 'bronze' tsuba which proved to be magnetic. Next time that I am in London for a viewing, I'll pop into the V&A and take a better look at their pieces and how they are described in their handy catalogue situated by the display. All the best, John

Hi John, I did not mean to imply that I had definitively identified the alloy by its density. I have shown that its not iron or aluminium (modern forgery) on the low density side and not silver, gold, or lead in the high density end. The Japanese kinko used lots of alloys when making tsuba. Ford gave a talk at the Asmolean Museum in 2016 on Japanese brass and showed the collection of Japanese alloys from the Victoria and Albert museum and I seem to remember that they have about 20 ingots of alloys, collected as definitive types in the 19thC. Ford is doing research on these and comparing the original wet assay results with modern spectroscopic ones. Maybe he will do some density measurements. I expect that many of them will be in the range of my tsuba. Out of general interest I read that tungsten has been used to make the core of fake gold ingots as it has almost the same density as gold. Luckily the forgers of the crown that Archimedes investigated was silver, or he would have paseed it as genuine. Regards, John

Hi Peter (Dibden), I've attached a few pics of a tsuba that I bought from the Wrangham Collection, Part IV, Lot 17. It is signed Echizen no Daijo Nagatsune...Sadanaka kore o horu (Sadanaka carved this [as the old boy, Nagatsune, was presumeably getting passed it]). The tsuba was described as shibuichi and is brown, as are lots of other tsuba that I have seen catalogued and in the flesh that are brown shibuichi. Shibuichi seems to be a generic name for copper silver alloys, sometimes including other metals, that can be patinated in a variety of ways. Ford is, of course, the expert on this having access to research the V&A collection of Japanese soft metal alloys. Apparently they have about 20? blocks of alloys brought back from Japan in the 19thC as definitive examples of particular alloys. regards, John

If you are like me and don't understand Spanish, copy and paste into Google Translate does a fair job regards, John

Hi Nick, I've just posted a new item (Gilt Tsuba) which I rushed through to show how I used Archimedes to determine the base metal of a gold plated tsuba. Regards, John

I bought this tsuba a couple of months ago as part of a mixed lot and was going to post it on the notice board when I had done a bit more research. One of the features of this tsuba that I was going to write about was the base metal, as determined by Archimedes principle. I notice that the topic of metal composition by this method has cropped up recently (Nick Ricupero), so I thought that I would post what I have. The tsuba is essentially round (7.3 cm high, 7.0 cm wide, 0.35cm thick) and has a thin gold gilding over an unknown soft metal base. Each side of the tsuba is carved on low relief and depicts a tranquil scene of one or two thatched huts next to a stream, one scene also having a footbridge. The trees also appear to have some shakudo in their makeup, but may be due to gilding rubbing off. At first glance the surface appears to be nanako, but closer examination reveals the texture to be more random in shape and distribution than nanako. I have only found two examples of gilt tsuba so far. The first is illustrated in Masterpieces from the Randolph B. Caldwell Collection, #16 (a late Muromachi piece, carved in low relief with a nanako ground. The copper base metal clearly visible around the nakago). The second was sold at Bonhams, 7 November 2013, lot 197 and signed Hishu Ngagasaki no ju Raitensai. This was carved in low relief and the photo looks like the plate was textued in a similar way to mine, rather than nanako. The gilding was worn and a brown metal underneath was showing through. I must have actually seen and handled this tsuba, but, having no interest at the time, have no recollection (old age probably). This 18thC Hizen tsuba was most like mine and so I will put mine from the same school (based on a limited sample population of two!). How popular were gilt tsuba and who wore them, as they look a bit gaudy to me? Any other ideas? Now to the main theme of this posting. What is the base metal of this tsuba? The inside of the nagako ana looks like brass in both colour and in the cut of the file marks. However, the rim shows a brown metal where the gilt is worn and looks like bronze or shibuichi. Like other Nihonto correspondents, I also remembered Archimedes, who thanks to his personal hygiene routine was able to exclaim ‘Eureka’ and demonstrate that the king’s gold crown had been debased with silver. I did the experiment as follows, using my wife’s kitchen scales. Suspending the tsuba with a piece of fishing line (see photos) I was able to determine its weight (148g). Bringing up a jug of water to submerge the tsuba reduced its weight to 130g. Thus the average density of the metal in the tsuba was 148/(148-130) = 8.2 (OK, let’s say 8.0-8.5 as weights were only determined to nearest 1g). Looking up density tables for metals I found that the density of steel is 7.8, brass is 8.4-8.7, bronze is 7.4 -8.9, depending upon tin content, copper is 8.9, silver is 10.5 and gold 19.3. So it looks like the base metal is either bronze, or a more likely Japanese brass alloy with increased density. I did not expect it to be solid gold. Regards, John (Just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Louis, Three very interesting tsuba. I have three that are identical to these, so unless someone is into 3D printing you sold these at Bonhams, November 2017, Lot 73, together with six other assorted tsuba (interesting Kaga Yoshiro that I hope to post soon). It’s a pity that you did not include the boxes, but nonetheless I am happy with the purchase and to be their next guardian. The signatures on the two ‘Nobuie’ tsuba appear to have been made with the same type of chisel as the Momoyama, ca. 1600, Nobuies. There were later generations of Nobuie in the Myochin school, so just because they signed their works is the same way as their illustrious ancestors does not necessarily mean they are fakes, just basing their styles on the ‘greats’ and to promote sales to the gullible. OK, the likelihood is they are deliberate fakes! If you take Japanese signatures at face value then Nobuie, Omori Teruhide, Kano Natsuo etc must have made about 10 items a day, to judge by the number of ‘signed’ kodogu appearing for sale. Also at the auction was a genuine Nobuie (NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon). This was described as having ‘granular tekkotsu to the rim’. I looked very hard (and I’m short sighted) but could not see anything that I would describe as tekkotsu, it looked like a fine ishime finish to me. I’ve seen coarser bones produced by a cremulator after a cremation. I mention this as the third tsuba that you showed (Myochin Kuninao copy of a Nobuie) has all sorts of lumps and bumps around the rim, see attached photos (sorry about the focus on macro). These are what I would normally identify as tekkotsu (the types vary in shape and size). Are they genuine, or did Kuninao use some other technique to create lumps when copying the Nobuie style? After all lumps and bumps cannot be tekkotsu unless they are made of iron differing in hardness from the bulk material. Thanks Curran for the identification of Kuninao. That’s what I was looking for when I first searched the Notice Board for info on Kuninao. The tsuba is engraved with waka poems. Anyone good at reading calligraphy style hiragana and translating Japanese poems? Regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Ooops, I forgot the tsuba dimensions: Height: 8.2 cm Width: 7.0 cm Thickness: 0.3 cm at the rim John

I thought that I’d post this tsuba for all you soft metal enthusiasts. The tsuba is a mumei, shibuichi plate of mokko form, probably 19th C. The shibuichi is a grey, green silver colour, rather than the brown patina usually seen with shibuichi. Are the two colours of shibuichi a result of different pickling processes and/or a variation in the nominal 25% silver content of the alloy? Perhaps Ford would like to comment. OK, let’s take a closer look at the decoration. The main figures on the lower right hand side of the tsuba are two kimono clad women, one with a baby on her back and the other holding a flower to amuse the child. The figures are executed in gold, copper, silver and shakudo iroe takazogan and are remarkably life like and detailed, e.g. the patterns on their kimono. The next feature is the flowers (probably bell flowers and a lily) depicted in engraved outline and inlaid (honzogan) with copper, silver and gold. The inlay varies from a light wash of material to a complete inlay. The fine engraving in this and other features are precise and evenly cut. At the top left is a thatched cottage in fine gold inlay in a mountain scene. The top right shows two honzogan inlay butterflies, one gold, the other shakudo. Of particular note is the fine gold inlay lines on the shakudo butterfly (1.5 cm wingtip to wingtip) and the ca. 60 minute inlaid gold spots on the wing. I assume that the artist used a needle punch to make the tiny holes and rubbed in a gold mercury amalgam into the holes and then heated the tsuba to drive out the mercury (I believe the technique is called keshikomi zogan). The reverse side of the tsuba is decorated using similar techniques and shows a pair of quail in gold takazogan amongst flowers looking at the moon. Can anyone tell me what the significance of a pair of quail is in Japanese art? I have pairs of quail on the reverse of two other unrelated tsuba. I believe that Mandarin ducks signify wedded fidelity, but quail? To my eyes, the execution of all the items in this tsuba is of the highest quality. In view of the number of techniques involved I wonder if this is a ‘workshop’ piece involving several specialist craftsmen. Any ideas on the school and even the craftsmen? I did see a grey shibuichi tsuba from the Otsuki school with a similar mixture of engraving and inlay in the design amongst the Wrangham Collection (Part IV, Lot30) and that would be my best guess. However I realise that in the 19thC there seems to have been a more fluid interchange of kinko artists and techniques between schools. Now we come to the downside. One of the things I love about pictorial tsuba is identifying the theme of the designs, which are often representations of Japanese or Chinese history or mythology. The components of this design look totally unrelated. I call this tsuba my ‘Sound of Music’ tsuba because it reminds me of the song ‘My Favourite Things’ sung by Julie Andrews in the film. You know the song: Raindrops on roses And whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favourite things. The reason behind this sobriquet is that I find the subject matter of this tsuba to be a random collection of pleasant images with strong feminine influences. Or to use the current colloquialism, ‘it’s a bit girlie’. Am I missing the big picture and does anyone know the tale depicted here? Looking at pictorial tsuba with human figures in various books and sale catalogues the figures nearly always face the seppa dai, or at the scene on the other side of the tsuba. In this tsuba the ladies are walking away from the hut and the idyllic scene in the background. Is this a symbolic representation of the ladies leaving ‘the Garden of Eden’? Perhaps one of the girls has been sent away from home for having an illegitimate child. I cannot imagine a macho samurai wearing this tsuba. It was probably made for the gaijin tourist market, but there is some staining around the seppa dai, indicating that is was mounted on a sword. Of course it may have been mounted on a garish set of koshirai on a sword put together for tourists, but then sold separately or removed once exported. If it was owned by a Japanese person, I can’t help feeling that it was for someone in the ‘floating world’, possibly a merchant, or a kabuki actor. Comments welcome Happy New Year, regards John (Just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Richard has suggested that the brass inlay missing from many/most of the Heianjo/Kaga Yoshiro tsuba might be due to the inlay being deliberately removed to improve the wabi-sabi aesthetics. I believe that the inlay is missing because iron tsuba with brass inlay are intrinsically unstable with respect to galvanic corrosion. Let me explain: The anodic index for some common metals used in inlayed tsuba is as follows; gold: 0.0, silver: -0.15, copper: -0.35, brass:-0.40, iron: -0.85. The higher the difference between two metals, the greater the chance that the one with the highest negative value (anodic) will corrode. Thus gold, silver and copper inlays should cause iron to corrode faster than brass. However, the speed of corrosion also depends upon whether the environment is humid or salty (which will accelerate corrosion due to better electrical conductance). I imagine that brass inlay does not adhere to iron as tightly as the other metals, as it is not so malleable, allowing moisture (rain, sweat) to seep into the brass/iron interface, accelerating the rusting of the iron and loosening the brass inlay. The phenomenon is well known. For example in the 17thC lead sheathing was found to cause the corrosion of iron bolts in ships in the British navy and in 1763 the Admiralty received a report recommending that copper cladding of ships (to prevent barnacle growth) should avoid direct contact of copper with the iron nails used to fasten the cladding, as the nails rapidly corroded. Don’t believe me? Well drop two iron tsuba into salt water. One inlaid with gold, the other with brass. The one inlaid with gold should rust a lot faster. Only joking, but perhaps Ford would like to try a little experiment with inlaid pieces of iron. I think that the heyday of brass inlay in tsuba was about 1600. I wonder if they fell out of favour when the inlay started to fall out after about 50 years? Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Defintely looks forged to me with a uniformly hammered surface. The tsuba looks quite thin, I doubt if iron could be cast as thin as that. See my addition to Sabiji’s post on ‘Hope For More Detailed Information’ for what I think can be seen in a cast tsubaBest regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Hi Pete, I’ve attached some more pics of one of my tsuba in order to add weight to my claim that it is cast rather than forged. Actually, the conclusion that it is cast was not originally mine. I posted this tsuba on the website some time ago asking for more info, thinking that the line around the rim was evidence of folding and the flaky surface due to high temperature forging. I was surprised that the opinion was that it was cast, but having looked closely, I’m sure that this is the case. I would not have thought that it was financially worthwhile to produce cast iron tsuba. But take a rough cast iron tsuba, finish with a file and chisel, or add a bit of nunome as bling and I suppose you can satisfy the cheap end of the market. So, my case for my tsuba being cast is: Pic 1 #134 The air holes and the tiny raised spots in the surface indicate casting rather than hammer work to me. The seppa dai is rougher than I would normally see, even on an old tosho or sukashi tsuba. Pics 2 & 3 #125, 126. The line running parallel to three rims is due to the join between the two halves of the mould. I originally thought that this was due to folding and incomplete welding of the plate. Pic 4 #123. The fourth rim show casting air holes Pics 5 &6 #130,131. These clearly show a line of protruding iron along the centre of the piercings. I believe this to be due molten iron seeping out of the joins between the two halves of the mould. This is also visible on my other tsuba (the one with ginger leafs posted earlier). My case rests Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Hi, I have a couple of iron tsuba in my collection which I reckon are cast rather than forged iron. They seem to have similar characteristics to your example; namely rounded features, about 6 -6.5 cm diameter, an irregular finish around the seppa dai and are rather thick (0.5 cm), which I imagine made them easier to cast. Though it is difficult to make judgements from photos I think that the common features indicate cast iron. Having said that they are cast rather than forged, I’m not saying that they are (Chinese) fakes, or even modern. I think that they are cheap tsuba made for poor samurai, or more likely for farmers or merchants as they seem to be of wakizashi size. Having cast the tsuba I imagine that they would then be finished by hand with engraving or nunome (your example). Not quite the best tsuba in my collection, but interesting nonetheless. Example 1: Height: 6.3 cm, Width: 6.0 cm,Thickness: 0.5 cm (seppa dai), 0.6 cm (rim) Example 2 (ginger leaves): Height: 6.8 cm, Width: 6.7 cm, Thickness: 0.5 cm Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Hi Ford, Thanks for the science regarding brass. Looks like Heianjo etc brass inlay is younger than many have previously thought. As a retired chemist I love to see science and archaeology getting together. In my own part of the world we have the Amesbury Archer burial. Radiocarbon dates it to about 2,300 BC. Oxygen isotope analysis shows he came from the Alps. The copper of his knife blades came from Spain and the gold of his earings from the somewhere else on the continent. So much info to be gained. Look forward to your book on Japanese metalurgy. Best regards, John

Thanks Rich, Steve Looks like I have a Saotome tsuba, decorated at a later date with brass inlay. I get the feeling from your comments and ones concerming the gomoko tsuba (posting Heianjo/Yoshiro tsuba #2) that brass became the 'in' decoration for tsuba in the late 16th C. Perhaps samurai dropped their tsuba into specialist inlay artists while they were in the area during this period if civil war. Much like sailors calling into a port and getting a tattoo.

Hi Jerimiah Thanks to all who have posted pictures. Attached are my pics which are of a silver mounted tourist piece. Late 19th/early 20th I would imagine. Not a lot of old interest and qualityabout it, but there is a lot of silver. I shall also post separately a shibuichi tsuba with a silvery patina. Might interest you. regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

OK, a bit of a time delay between posting Heinjo tsuba 1 and 3 and the final one from my collection, but the original photos were a bit naff. Nothing particularly exciting about this oval Heianjo/Kaga Yoshiro type tsuba at first glance, a 24-petalled chrysanthemum (hey, I spelt it correctly!) with brass inlay. I would guess that the inlay the Kaga branch of the Heianjo school. Some of the inlay is missing, which does provide an opportunity to look at how the inlay was applied! Unlike posting for tsuba #1 and #2 the inlay is flush with the iron plate. Of note is the lack of hitsu ana, which may be an indication (not reliable) that this tsuba is pre-Edo, say 1650-1600. An almost identical tsuba came up recently in an auction that I saw on line (see Word document attached) with an NHTBK attribution to the Kaga Yoshiro school. My Japanese is not good enough to make out much more than the mumei Kaga Yoshiro attribution, but I’m happy with their assessment A similar tsuba was sold as part of the Compton Collection (Part II, lot 27, 22 October, 1992). I say similar in that it was also a 24-petalled chrysanthemum (not 23 as Christies counted) with a slight mokko shape and a single kodzuka hitsu. As far as I can see from their photo the punch marks around the nagako ana are similar (round punch along both sides) and it seems the tsuba was attributed to the Saotome school largely because of this kantei point. The inlay was described as a later Kaga addition. I suppose most of us are more familiar with the ca. 72-petalled chrysanthemum pattern that typified Saotome work. My knowledge of tsuba is not good enough to say if this tsuba could be Saotome work, but from the limited information that I have found, Saotome tsuba seem to be thick (4-5 mm) as is this tsuba. I gather that the Japanese liked to embellish old tsuba with soft metal in the Edo period, so a possibility. My inclination is to attribute this tsuba to the late 16th C based upon: The solid nature of the tsuba, which would have been more of a requirement during this waring time. The lack of hitsu ana. The lack of sophistication in both the tsuba and inlay. And finally a silly question. The city of Kyoto was formerly known as Heian. Can anyone tell me why brass inlay tsuba are called Heianjo whereas sukashi tsuba are termed Kyo-sukashi, both being produced in the same area around the same time, ca. 1600? Anyway, comments welcome, so shoot me down. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn) Heianjo Tsuba #3 Identical.docx

This tsuba appears to be a typical Heianjo gemoku zogan tsuba, popular around the 17th and 18th centuries. As with posting #1, this type of tsuba appears to be attributed to the Kaga Yoshiro offshoot of the Heianjo school. One description that I have seen for this type of tsuba is that they are often old tosho tsuba given a new least of life with this decoration. I’m not sure that this would apply to this particular tsuba as the nagako ana is reasonably ubu with just a single punch mark for fitting a sword. I would expect the nagako ana to be a bit more bashed about if the tsuba had been recycled (unless a later sword was bigger and the nagako ana widened). The iron plate is fairly smooth and may be tsuchime (lighly hammered) rather than polished smooth. I’ve read that the term ‘gemoku’ is derived from the Japanese word ‘gomi’ meaning rubbish or junk and I suppose that is one description of the design, bits of scrap brass wire sprinkled on an iron base and fused/soldered into place. Another description is that the pattern represents a bed of pine needles scattered on the ground or on a lake. I prefer this description, as the ‘rubbish’ has been uniformly cut into about 2-3 mm lengths, some of which are copper. There are also long copper and brass strips resembling twigs. I have seen only one other example of this type of tsuba inlaid with copper as well as brass. This example has both copper and a silver coloured metal inlay (probably a silver solder alloy as it has not turned black), in addition to the brass. Copper and silver inlays are mentioned in the literature, but this is the first time that I have seen an example. How common is this? We then come to the question of how the ‘inlay’ was applied. There are a few fine cuts in the plate where it looks like inlay may have been attached. But they are fine, looking like they had been cut using a Stanley knife (box cutter for our US readers) and don’t look as if they would provide much of an anchor for the long strips of fine copper wire, less than 0.5 mm in diameter (obviously they did not provide a firm anchor in some cases, as the inlay is missing!) The close up photo shows groups of pine needle inlay raised slightly above the iron plate, imbedded in a matrix, which I assume to be some type of silver solder. These are therefore not true inlay. Other, single needles and fine copper twigs (less than 0.5 mm diameter) show no outward sign of solder. Has this been carefully trimmed away? There are a couple of long cuts where it looks like the ‘twig’ inlay did not attach, but are surrounded by silver solder. Why did the tsubako leave solder around these cuts, but not round the ‘twigs’ that were attached? Soldering these fine bits of ‘rubbish’ onto the plate must have presented the artisan with some problems. Presumably they did not have access to some kind of blow torch for local heating. Possibly groups of needles were placed on a thin sheet of solder and attached in one go by heating the whole tsuba. But this does not seem to have been done for individual needles and twigs. Having completed one side, perhaps they placed the tsuba upside down on an iron plate to prevent the soldered bits falling off when the other side was decorated! I must admit that until I bought this tsuba I was not very taken with gemoku decoration, considering it to be ‘rubbish’. However, looking closely at the way that the fine ‘scraps of brass and copper rubbish’ have been attached, they could not have been that easy to produce. Dimension: Height: 7.6 cm, Width: 7.4 cm, Thickness: 0.35 cm Old collector’s number ‘252’ inside the nagako ana (What a pity that the old inventories of these collectors do not seem to be extant as reference pieces). Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Up until recently I have never seen the attraction in brass inlayed tsuba typified by the Onin, Heianjo, Yoshiro and Jingo schools, to my mind, gold is a much classier metal for inlay. However, I saw one at auction recently and decided to buy it as it was in great condition; only one section of about 1 cm of fine inlay was missing. I have attributed the tsuba to the Kaga Yoshiro school, as several other very similar examples attributed to this school appear in books (Peabody Museum E31250) or are currently for sale (e.g RiceCracker.com). The combination of bell flowers (with five petals) and asymmetric ‘V’ shaped leaves on the vine seem characteristic of this off-shoot of the Heianjo school. After studying the tsuba for a while I have begun to appreciate its charm. It has also raised a few questions regarding the iron base plate of the tsuba. In most of the examples of Heianjo/Yoshiro brass inlay tsuba I have come across, admittedly mainly in books or through a glass cabinet at a museum, the inlay looks fairly flush with the smooth iron plate, or the plate is described as ‘lightly hammered’ if it is not perfectly smooth. The plate on this one has a granular appearance, as if etched with acid (see photos). The tsuba looks as if has had brass inlay applied to a flat iron plate, the brass masked with a protective coating and immersed in acid to remove about 0.5mm of iron, but maybe the whole plate has this texture and was etched before the inlay was applied. I’m surmising that the granular appearance is due to a mixture of different steels in the plate dissolving at different rates. To support this assumption I remember as a kid dropping a copper penny into nitric acid and watching it dissolve. The penny just got thinner and thinner, but the embossed design remained visible, the dissolution process occurring at the same rate over the homogeneous metal. I would expect that ‘lightly hammering’ the plate would produce smooth indentations, not the granular appearance seen on this tsuba. Perhaps this tsuba had become heavily rusted and has been restored, but I don’t think so, the surface is too even, whereas rusting would mostly likely be confined to specific areas. So, first questions, do others out there think that the tsuba has been acid etched and how common was this procedure? The granular appearance raises another question. The parts that stick up from the surface areas are probably harder steel/iron and so can they be considered as tekkotsu (iron bones)? OK, I agree that they are not the classic tekkotsu that I have seen on the rims of tsuba arising from the forging process, but….. The final question that I have regarding this tsuba is the patina. There is no rust on this tsuba and the shine on the patina of the iron looks as if it has been waxed, coated with lacquer in historical times, or polyurethane in recent times (Ugh!). This type of tsuba was popular around 1600 but looks as if could have been made yesterday, but I hope not. It has either been treasured over the centuries, or may be a later copy of this popular design. Apart from the gloss on the iron there is no other sign of a coating, e.g. worn areas, edges to the coating. Two other iron tsuba from the same auction lot have normal patina, so I can’t attribute the gloss to the previous owner. Any thoughts? Dimensions: Height: 7.7 cm, Width: 7.5 cm, Thickness: 0.4 cm Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

Hi Luca, I too have acquire three Heianjo/Toshiro tsuba recently and find then impossible to date accurately. Around 1600 is about as good as it gets for me as Japanese craftsmen often slavishly copied their masters for generations, if a particular item sold well. Then, of course, if a particular school gained interest amongst collectors, they were copied. Over the next few days I will be posting notes and questions about my three tsuba, which I hope will be of interest. Best regards, John

'If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.' David Thoreau. 'Go your own way.' Fleetwood Mac Remember if we only colected 'old iron' the rest of the tsuba world would be worthless. Collect that which gives you most pleasure (and is affordable) regards, John

Hi Dude, Thanks for your reply. If you look at my original posting it stated that ‘My tsuba is more refined than the Tadatora one (Note that I do not say better, depends upon your ascetics) in that the mantis has more of a three dimensional body on both sides and the legs and the antennae are more finely carved, like kyo-sukashi work. ‘ I considered putting ‘I DO NOT SAY BETTER’ in capitals, and no doubt should have. By refined I mean the representation is more lifelike and detailed. Much in the same way as a Rembrandt could be considered as more refined than a Picasso. In the old sukashi tsuba, typified by Sasano’s book, the quality and forging of the iron is paramount. In later sukashi tsuba (like this one), emphasis seems to have switched to a more detailed carving of the design, plus embellishments with gold nunome highlights. I would not be surprised the tsuba makers at this time just started with sheets of industrial grade(nambam testsu) iron as it usually looks homogeneous. I have a couple of cast iron tsuba (bought cheaply I hasten to add) and the iron looks totally different, so I don’t think that it was cast Best regards, John