First Brass Tsuba...

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wanted to post some photos I did of my first brass tsuba and newest addition to my collection. I had to save money for about two months to afford this fine tsuba. This is an important point to new collectors out there that frequent NMB that it is sometimes necessary to wait and save your money a while for one fine tsuba when it is offered to you by a more senior collector.

The tsuba is from Hirado Province located on Hirado Island modern day Nagasaki Prefecture circa the middle Edo Period. A partial write up and additional photos are on my homepage of my website at http://www.tsubaotaku.com/. The tsuba has a NTHK Kanteisho paper attributing the tsuba to Hirado Province. This would be a good tsuba for Richard George's VR technology as the cloud design covers all parts of the rim. The tsuba was once in Jim Gilbert's collections and his notes can be found here on this website: http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/hoan.htm. It is the last tsuba on the webpage. This is the only Hirado Kunishige tsuba I have ever seen in person or in books using small openwork design (ko-sukashi 小透). The other techniques are fairly common to works done by Kunishige. Enjoy and feel free to comment and discuss.

[Brian]

I could swear I saw this on a website a few days ago. Was it Curran's? If so..I remember it because I stopped and thought "wow..that is stunning"

Nice one, whether it is or isn't. I think this takes your interests to a new level. Congrats, it is beautiful.

 

Brian

[John A Stuart]

Brass (shinchu) tsuba are often passed by as being well...brassy. The problem is that they can get a patina that is not as pleasing to SOME collectors as other metals. Good quality brass (type of alloy) is one of the criteria that can make or break its desirability. I remember pics of some tsuba recon'd by Ford that had that wonderful colour, August sun, that would have been binned in the original state. Too, the artistry beyond the base makes one more desirable than another. This is one such, and a good softie. John

[Soshin]

I could swear I saw this on a website a few days ago. Was it Curran's? If so..I remember it because I stopped and thought "wow..that is stunning"

Nice one, whether it is or isn't. I think this takes your interests to a new level. Congrats, it is beautiful.

 

Brian

 

Hi Brian R.,

 

Thanks for the reply. Funny thing is I don't remember seeing it on Curran's website at all. Curran my senior in the hobby by about ten years had a discussion about this tsuba via email back in April and I committed to the purchase then after seeing good photos of it. The remarkable detail and refinement is something very clear in hand but is a bit hard to capture in any photo.

 

Hi John S.,

 

I know what you mean. The very first brass tsuba I remember seeing when I first started to collect were ones found on Shin-Gunto mounts and wasn't impressed at all. The pre-modern brass with black lacquer and a age patina is a whole different story.

[Curran]

Hi guys,

 

Nope. Not on my website.

Brian- you might be crossing wires between the small waveform suaka Kanshiro I have up and an iron Norisuke school of similar design I had up at one point.

 

This is a gem of a tsuba David has now. It belonged to Jim Gilbert a long time, and I remember it as one of the prettiest he would show in the NY Club.

[Brian]

Curran,

Odd...I wonder why I had a feeling I had seen it before. But none the less....remains a great looking tsuba. One definitely to my taste.

 

Brian

[Curran]

Brian,

 

Well, it is up on Jim Gilbert's website. Maybe you saw it there first.

 

I may have also posted about it before, as I liked the shape much. So did shodai Norisuke.

This tsuba is very pretty in person. Just very pleasant and nice color across the room- makes you walk over and look at it even if there is a Juyo Owari next to it.

[Pete Klein]

(lol)