Heianjo - Onin tsuba

[Curran]

Last week I helped place an estate of mostly muromachi period tsuba.

Many very fine pieces.

 

I held back two for study. One or both will be for sale on juyo-bi.com next month.

The one I find most challenging is a Heianjo - Onin style tsuba.

The only 2 similar examples I've located are in Wakayama Encyclopedia and the Compton Collection Vol #2.

 

See photos. Has anyone similar examples of this high orange brass? Is it copper or another impurity?

If you have anything similar, please post photos.

[John A Stuart]

Inlayed copper seems more orange, but, some brass is more orange as well such as this signed Yamashiro ju Nagayoshi here; http://www.johnstuart.biz/new_page_19.htm John

[MauroP]

Hi Curran,

the chessboard-like sukashi (which surely is not the most important feature of your tsuba) reminded me a tsuba from Aotsu Yasuhisa - Tōsōgu korekushon, p. 24 (http://is2.sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp/fks-db ... 00024.html). It's a mid-Muromachi piece, and the quality of brass could be comparable (difficult to judge from the picture).

Bye, Mauro

[Soshin]

Hi Curran,

 

This tsuba is in my opinion a early Heianjo-zogan tsuba and not a Onin tsuba circa the late Muromachi Period. To me the inlay are likely patinated brass to give a more orangish color. Here is a link to a tsuba at Grey's site that I think has a similar colored soft metal inlays: http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/tsuba-%26-kodogu/t185-iron-sukashi-brass-inlay-tsuba. Reading the Japanese descriptions of other similar color inlaid tsuba examples in the link provided by Mauro P. they say brass inlay. This is just my two cents I hope you find it helpful.