Yamagane tsuba

[growlingbear]

I'm hoping to get some information about a tsuba I bought a couple of months ago - it only cost me about $20 so I'm not too sad if it's a bit of a dud!

 

Here are the scans:

 

So my (uneducated) opinion on this is it looks like it is made of yamagane - you can see the copper colour in a scratch on the nakago ana. It looks to have been coated in black lacquer, you can see this in the scans but it is more obvious in hand. It is small, 5.6 x 5.2cm and only about 0.2cm thick. The surface is covered in indentations - I can't tell if the hitsu ana are original or not, in some places it looks like they have gone through the pattern in other places it looks like the pattern goes around them.

 

As for age, I think it looks like some of the examples in Mariusz's article (in the article section) from the Muromachi period. It is also noticeable how big the nakago ana is, like this was on a large sword. Would it right to call this a tachi kanagushi tsuba?

 

Looking forward to your comments - I really like the simplicity of this tsuba and I think the patina is fantastic. Interested to hear what everyone else thinks!

 

Thanks,

 

James

[John A Stuart]

20$ Jeez!! Boris M.'s forte I think. Tachikanagushi sounds about right. Yamagane. John

[Thierry BERNARD]

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/arti ... -tsuba.pdf

[BMarkhasin]

James,

 

A very nice tsuba, congratulations. $20!? Well done! I certainly concur that it is yamagane, and quite old. The nakago-ana has been altered for various blades through the ages. The crude, roughly concentric designs predate the hitsu-ana in application to the plate, but the hitsu-ana are of an old style, and may also be original in this case. I would say that the shape of the hitsuana are the best indicators of age for this piece, and are reminiscent of some koMino tsuba as well as other kokinko of the early to mid Muromachi (15th c). Seems to be considerable amounts of remnant black lacquer in the divets and plate.

 

Best Regards,

Boris.

[Soshin]

Hi James,

 

Very nice find for only $20.00. I almost paid for a similar tsuba (unpapered like yours) 20 times that price but backed out of the deal and decided on another tsuba I was considering late last year. At the time the tsuba I was considering I was thinking and still think was a good deal. Here is a good reference site for these type of tsuba: http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/index.html.

 

P.S. Just noticed the link on Boris M. reply. Sorry for the duplication.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Curran]

$20? Newbie luck or you took a really good shot after having learned from NMB a bit.

 

I can only back up Boris' comments about the hitsu-ana. I put on my dark glasses, grab my zato cane, and stumble around in his area of expertise, always learning something from him. The similarity to ko-mino point was a good one. Please share a photo or two of the tsuba in natural sunlight, if you ever get the chance or can photograph it near a window in what is probably still cold weather in the UK.

 

David are you in Japan, or just about to head to Japan?

[Soshin]

Hi Curran,

 

I would agree these type of tsuba are outside of my general expertise. I just PM you the dates next month I will be in Japan. I am looking forward to my honeymoon/vacation. :D

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[growlingbear]

Thanks for the information everyone.

 

Thierry, yes, that's the article I was referring to. Thanks to Mariusz for putting it together, it's very interesting. I also spent a long while looking through the Yamabushi antiques site, lots of great examples.

 

I actually bought this from eBay... It had been put up by a seller at the same time as about 15 extremely rusty Edo/Meiji tsuba and was hidden in the middle of them. They all went for more that this one, it was labelled as being made of iron and from 1850... I thought I'd take a gamble on it and it looks like I've done alright!

 

Curran, I had done a bit of research (thanks NMB) so I thought I knew what I was getting but like you say I'm a newbie so it certainly is a bit of beginners luck. The shape of the hitsu ana and fairly crude decoration I thought made this stand out as being much older than the others, and the metal was clearly not iron. When I got it in hand I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of lacquer that seems to still be present and the colour of the patina.

 

Boris, thanks very much for the information, 15th C is older than I thought - your site has some fantastic examples with good information about them, I found this very helpful.

 

The sun was out for a short while here in the grey and cold UK this morning so I took a couple of shots before I came to work. I will post them later this evening when I get home.

 

Edit: Meant to ask, does anyone have a picture of hitsu-ana shapes and how they have changed through time? I think I have seen something similar before but I can't find it. It would be very useful!

 

Thanks again,

 

James

[growlingbear]

Here are further photos. They show the colour a bit better than the scans I think:

 

 

Let me know if any other photos would be useful.

 

James

[BMarkhasin]

Hi James,

 

Some time ago, I made an attempt at cataloguing hitsuana shapes chronologically (based on my opinions). My collection at the time was skewed to largely early Muromachi or older pieces, so the graphic below is light on late Muromachi styles. Muy Grande Disclaimer: This compilation is a rough guide only, and it must be realized that there was no distinct stages of hitsuana change. Change is organic and 'lumpy', in that numerous variations coexist at any given time; styles fall in and out of favour and revivals are common; tosogu use is highly diachronous, meaning that an unmolested late Muromachi koshirae may employ tosogu from various earlier periods, so a lot of 'license' has to be exercised in any attempt to place items into a chronology as associations are not cut and dry, etc... In general however, we can establish a rough chronology of shape preference / change, and this is what is being represented here.

 

After a bit more consideration, I do feel James' tsuba is likely a mid 15th to early 16th c. piece.

 

Best,

Boris.

PS - I cant seem to make the image appear below the text. It appears only as a link. Can one of the admins assist in making it visible after the body of the text? Thanks.

[John A Stuart]

I had to reduce the file size. John

[Brian]

Pics will display directly as long as they are less than 1200x1200 pixels.

More than that forces page scrolling which is untidy, so those are converted to links. Feel free to upload a larger pic up to 1200 wide for more detailed study. Not more that 1 meg big.

 

Thanks for that pic Boris, very useful.

 

Brian

[growlingbear]

Boris, that picture is great and very useful as a guide. Thanks very much for posting.

 

James