1000 Monkeys tsuba

[Clive Sinclaire]

Gentlemen

You may be interested to see a short profile on a senbikizaru (1000 monkeys) tsuba on the To-ken Society of GB's website which may be found at http://www.To-ken.com Any comments or additional information would of course, be most welcome.

Regards

Clive Sinclaire

PS: I bought it azt the Birmingham (UK) Arms Fair 2 Sundays ago.

[John A Stuart]

Clive I put this in the Tosougu section so those that love tsuba and not swords overly will be sure to see it. John

[ROKUJURO]

Clive,

 

it may be the photo but this TSUBA has a strange look to it. The SEPPA DAI has some 'sunken-in' spots, and the surface of the carved monkeys has a uniform sheen as if it was coated or painted. I don't want to shout 'cast' without having held the TSUBA in hand, but it appears different from others that I have seen.

[Ford Hallam]

Clive,

 

I would have to suggest that this is a cast copy of an original. Following on from Jean's observations I would add that it appears the copper seki-gane of the original have be reproduced as part of the tsuba base metal.

 

 

fh

[Ford Hallam]

And silvery 'shibuichi' isn't typical for this sort of work...could it be Ezo? :lol:

[John A Stuart]

Zing, pow, boom!! Ford. John

[Clive Sinclaire]

Thanks chaps - there is certainly plenty of room for thought there.

Regards

C S

[Curran]

After 30 years, Benson's Bushido magazine article still remains the best illustration of this little school's works.

[christianmalterre]

plus do try to get the AFJ Article on these ones,written by Robert Burawoy.

 

Christian

[docliss]

I will, if I may, follow Clive’s posting with a second example of Noda Mitsuhiro work. This is another of the ‘thousand monkeys’ theme, the animals depicted in very fine katachi-bori, with kebori detail and with gold inlaid eyes. Careful inspection of the images reveals the three sambu-naru monkeys that could not see, speak nor hear any evil, and a pair playing the game of strength known as kubi-kubi. The tsuba is inscribed on the omote HISHU YAGAMI (NO)JU MITSUHIRO, and on the ura MOTTE (WO) XXXX KANE KORE (WO) SAKU

 

Part of this latter inscription has been defaced: a similar tsuba, illustrated on pp.544-5 of Tsuba Daikwan, is inscribed on the reverse ‘Sentokū Kane (wo) Motte Saku Kore (wo)’. Sentokū was a valuable alloy, the use of which was, at one time, confined to coinage, and this may be the explanation for this erasure.

 

Ex Radford

Ex Peak

Ex Hawhshaw collections.

 

There were three artists of the Noda family who signed their work thus. Mitsuhiro II was the younger brother, and Mitsuhiro III the eldest son, of the first master. The repetitive nature of the animals depicted in the mimi, and the curvature to the left of the second and third vertical strokes of the ‘shu’ kanji suggest that this tsuba is by N. Mitsuhiro I (ca 1750-1800).

 

John L.

[docliss]

Attached are the two images.

 

John L

[Jean]

I like this one

 

http://www.nona.dti.ne.jp/~sword/tuba/t0221saru.htm

[raven2]

Me too :D

[k morita]

Hi,

Pics from [A barief History of Noda Mitsuhiro],an old booklet published in 1929.

It is described on this booklet that Jakushi also made thousand-monkey tsuba.

 

Sorry poor quality pics because pics from old booklet.

[k morita]

One monkey on the rock by Mitsuhiro.

[k morita]

3 monkeys (sanzaru) by Mitsuhiro .

[k morita]

thousand monkeys by Mitsuhiro.

[k morita]

Musashi tsuba by Mitsuhiro

[k morita]

Mokume and web tsuba by Mitsuhiro.

[runagmc]

Interesting, I don't remember seeing engraved mokume like this before...

[Brian]

Thank you Morita san, a great reference for anyone looking up this maker in future.

 

Brian

[docliss]

Do the images that K Morita has posted have any indication as to which of the three Mitsuhiro artists they can be attributed? That would be really great .... John L.