Second Tsuba from 2013 Tampa Show...

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is the second and very different tsuba I purchased from the 2013 Tampa Show. It was a unexpected purchase on Sunday as the show was ending. Here is the first photograph I have of the tsuba. I will post more tomorrow once I have my camera and equipment setup.

The measurements on this large iron tsuba is 8.6 X 8.6 cm. The thickness at the nakago-ana is 3.0 mm and the thickness at the dote-mimi style rim is 4.4 mm. The surface is covered in black lacquer with a little bit of age appropriate rust pitting in places that disrupts the black lacquered but overall the surface is intact. The color of the patina is a dark brown to black in places that still have lacquer. The plate is well forged with a fine tsuchime-ji surface and the dote-mimi style rim is turned up nicely. The plate unlike many Katchushi tsuba lacks any ko-sukashi designs and has a very utilitarian feel to it. The tsuba was intended to be mounted on a koshirea that had a large kozuka and a smaller umebari "horse needle". Not sure but I think the umebari was likely added later and the large kozuka hitsu-ana is original.

In conclusion I would date this tsuba from looking at examples in my reference library and the Yamabushi website thanks Boris M. and Andy M. from the middle to late Muromachi Period. Likely during the opening years of the Sengoku-jidai after the Ōnin War (1477) but before the rule of Oda Nobunaga (1568). Comments and questions are welcome.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Curran]

Dear David Dude~

 

That is a horrible mug shot that looks like it was taken at the police station.

 

I've seen this tsuba in person. The photo misrepresents it, or what it looks like at a distance with a flash or poor lighting.

(hence why I missed it on the table in Tampa). In person, it looks much more like an early 1500s simplified version of this: http://yamabushiantiques.com/BM%20Kai%2 ... 0Tsuba.htm

 

I've seen your other photo work, like with the kodai-Yagyu. This one deserves that, and also some scale perspective.

I look forward to when you have time for the photos that really show this Warring Period heavily lacquered piece.

[Akitombo]

David

 

Your tsuba got me digging in a drawer.

This is one that I put down to Satsuma school, early Edo period.

Dia 8.06cm, Nakago ana 3.1mm and Dote mimi 4.9mm.

And yes, I know, photography is not one of my skill sets!

Regards

David

[Soshin]

Hi Curran C. and David;

 

Here are the much better photographs. Yes Curran C. I agree the first photo I did with the on camera flash was really bad and looked like a police mugshot. After taking and editing the photographs I realized that I forgot the scale you requested in the photographs. To aid the the scaling both are 35 mm photographs. My measurements are included above in my original post. One thing I noticed that the copper sekegane that were added later were lacquered black to match the plate surface this is a fairly common observation on older nicer tsuba.

David your tsuba looks like a classic Satsuma tsuba. Very functional with none to minimal decorative design. If I remember correctly they often didn't lacquered their tsuba and used a patination process to protect the surface. Most lacquering of tsuba were done first by the Ko-Katchushi group as well as other early groups that emerged from Ko-Katchushi group such as the Kamakura-bori and Onin groups. Please feel free to comment.

 

P.S. I found this very similar tsuba on Jim G. website it is the fourth tsuba from the top. He describes his tsuba as Ko-Katchushi crica late Muromachi Period.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/oldiron2.htm

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[rkg]

Hey! that's a blast from the past. Here's another image of that piece I shot a looong time ago... Given I shot it with my Canon, I'm not sure how close the colors are, but.. It isn't the most flattering light for the piece, but you can a lot of detail.

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[Soshin]

Hi Richard G.,

 

Thanks for the reply I do notice that we have somewhat similar taste in tsuba. I will make a mental note to remember when writing about this tsuba that the provenance is the Ex. Richard K. George collection. Was it ever published in a KTK yearly publication? I really like your photograph of this tsuba which is very nicely done. The photograph also includes a scale as Curran C. had requested for which I forgot about. Can I email you a request for a high resolution jpeg of your image? Thank you very much.

 

P.S. I would love to hear your impressions about the tsuba in terms of quality, age, and attribution as I consider you very knowledgeable.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[rkg]

David,

 

I never owned this piece, thought I did get to study it for a short time (a prior owner stopped by and I happened to shoot it along with several others he had, plus I got to look at it again a

couple of other times). At the time when I shot it I was really interested in tosho/katchushi tsuba, and found this one interesting because its a nice size/shape and it has a lot old lacquer left on it.

 

On the Jidai, I'd have guessed late muromachi to momoyama - in there somewhere. I didn't get the feeling it was really old because the lacquer/corrosion didn't seem to form that amalgam it does on

really old pieces - but then again, it might have been lacquered later. I'm actually not that big a fan of surface corrosion like that (but then again, I'm a fine one to talk because I have a

Really Old katchushi that's pretty pitted- http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuff/t ... a_out.html), but given that the lacquer is significant on your piece, what do you do...

 

Though they aren't my best work you're welcome to the images I've got - just email me directly so I know where to send 'em to (note that they were in storage so it might take me a little while

to dig them out again, as I'm trying to do several things at once today as usual.

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[Soshin]

Hi Richard G.,

 

Well having a tsuba with such a great provenance and/or being in a KTK publication just wasn't in the cards. :lol:

Given the fact that I been calling this my Sengoku-jidai tsuba the late Muromachi to Momoyama Period time frame for production is I think applicable. The Sengoku-jidai is a period in Japanese history that don't have fix dates of beginning and ending. Some scholars included or not included the Onin Wars circa 1467-1477 and then ending around the battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The information above about the Sengoku-jidai is gathered from the recent book Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts by Dr. David A. Hall. The histiocal information has allowed me to start to put my study of iron tosogu into a greater historical context. The lacquer I was assuming was original but it could have been relacquered more then once over the course of its functional lifetime. I do notice that from looking at the nakago-ana that this tsuba has been mounted on more then one sword. The other openings also might not be original.

Your Ko-Katchushi tsuba is just wonderful thanks for sharing the link. I just love your VR images. How big and how old do you think your tsuba is?

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

To expand this topic for more of a discussion beyond the tsuba I was wondering what type of other fittings would have been used along with a tsuba like this in a Sengoku-jidai era koshirae? Are their many intact utilitarian late Muromachi to Momoyama Period "Sengoku-jidai" koshirae left to study? Did the koshirae lack menuki? A list of good references is also very helpful.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[rkg]

David,

 

Well, if you REALLY want one of "those" tsuba, I do have a stack of my pieces on my desk I'll be needing to sell as soon as I get done shooting stuff for the next KTK catalog

 

On that katchushi, its ~7.75 cm in diameter,.38 cm thick at the mimi, and .28 cm at the nakago ana.

 

On the early koshirae there are few around - a good reference is the uchigatana koshirae book by the Tokyo National museum - its great because they include a number of images of each koshirae of interest so you can actually see what was there/how it was put together.

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)