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Hummingbirds & Bonsai as subjects


Sam Elliott

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Hello all,

 

Has anyone seen (Or better yet does anyone have photos) of Tsuba with hummingbirds or bonsai as the subject matter? I'd also be interested to see any examples where they have been used in Fuchi & Kashira or Menuki. Done a bit of poking around but have yet to see anything.

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

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Dear Sam,

Hummingbirds are native ONLY to North and South America. They do not live in Japan or anywhere else for that matter. As far as Bonsai, ... I can honestly say I've never seen Bonsai as a subject matter on Fuchi Kashira, Menuki, Tsuba. That certainly doesn't mean such decoration was not used. Bonsai as an art or hobby has been present in Japan for more than 1000 years, ... so the likelyhood is in favour of there having been depicted.

... Ron Watson

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This is a private view only, but given Ron's statement, when one sees particularly pine trees depicted on sukashi tsuba I am reminded of the appearance of a bonsai pine. I wouldnt be surprised if a bonsai had been used as a basic model for this type of design. The same could be said of cherry blossoms and trees. The gnarled appearance of such trees in these designs is more common on bonsai than in nature. Never seen one with the pot included in the design though.

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Thank you both - especially the information about the birds :) They stay very well fed around my place, however I was not aware of their geography.

 

As for the bonsai, it is certainly a point I'll try to explore futher. I have seen a number of pines that could certainly be such as well as some that appear to be other flora that might be bonsai, but as as you mentioned nothing with pots.

 

Sam

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As a former Bonsai collector, I have occasionally looked at pieces of that subject matter. I don't have any saved images for you but they are out there. I have seen them in pots on tsuba. From what I remember they are not the main subject matter. Although I know I have seen bonsai themed menuki just couldn't tell you where. They are definitely out there. Good luck hunting them down.

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post-26-14196857404795_thumb.jpgI had some time and got a new printer so I figured I would play with scan features a bit. Here is a pine bonsai menuki from a book fine sword fittings: menuki (2). I didn't do a great job scanning but could get you a better scan if you needed too. The book pic isn't great so the scan is fairly close to the menuki pic in book.

 

A few examples to get you started. I would suggest searching Japanese websites with the kanji characters for bonsai along with the Japanese menuki, tsuba otherwise you will get just bonsai sites. Learning how to search Japanese websites can be a great search tool even if you don't read Japanese. Best of luck.

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ok my head has calluses too. :bang: There are 3 different kanji terms for praying mantis alone, let alone insects, etc. Still it can be an adventure and for reasons that I don't understand, every once in a while on a mantis tsuba search turns up naked Japanese ladies :oops: . While I still avert my eyes, after all I am not Milt, it can give you the pickup to keep on going :o .

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