New Akasaka tsuba

[Antti]

Greetings gents.

 

It has taken me quite a while saving for a new tsuba and finally something new is in my hands. Again I am looking for comments, impressions and it would be interesting to see a more accurate attribution as well. The tsuba came from a forum member, but was not sold through the forum's "For Sale"-section.

 

Without any further ado:

 

76 mm x 73mm x 5,5mm

1997 NTHK Kanteisho to Akasaka (76 points)

Ex-Jim Gilbert, can be seen in http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/akasaka.htm

Shakudo pillows on both hitsu ana

Rather distinctive tekkotsu/fold lines in the mimi

 

Again I apologize if the pictures are not as good as they might be.

[hxv]

Very nice, tasteful tsuba in excellent condition.

 

Hoanh

[Justin]

Beautiful tsuba Antti. Well done!

[Brian]

You did well Antti. Very, very well.

Congrats. Hopefully one of the Akasaka guys can help you more with generation.

 

Brian

[Soshin]

Hi Antti,

 

Nice Akasaka tsuba.

[Antti]

Thank you for your impressions!

 

Ah yes, one more thing. Does anyone know what the design of the bottom is, below the seppa dai. I've seen a nidai example which was almost identical, but had a catfish on the bottom. I have no idea what this might be. A tool of some kind?

[John A Stuart]

A guess, as this seems to be related in theme to cloves (cyouji) and plants, maybe an old type of pruning shears??? John

[Antti]

Good idea mr. Stuart. I am convinced it is some kind of a tool.

 

At first I thought the top of the motif was one of those sturdy handsaws:

http://japantool-iida.com/saw/2008/05/m ... etail.html

 

The bottom looks like perhaps a tool with handle... a spokeshave?

[Soshin]

Hi Antti S.,

 

Funny I was reading the NTHK paper and it has under the notes section: "(江戸時代前中期) Edo Jidai Zen Chu Ki". Which translates to as "early middle Edo Period". Thats very specific.

[Antti]

Ah thank you mr. Stiles. The inability to read kanji is a problem for me. Thank goodness I am surrounded by people who do

 

Before I acquired this, I learned from a reliable source that this would be the work of Shodai Tadatoki (4th master). If the papers say early mid-edo, or early 18th century, it would fit perfectly. As far as I know, he received the mastery from the 3rd master in 1707 and died in 1746 (H. 09165.0). I wonder why the NTHK did not just attribute to generation, as the Early Middle Edo is still a very specific attribution timewise.

 

I asked for a generation just to see if people would come to the same conclusion independently, for confirmation and perhaps a learning experience.

[Soshin]

Hi Antti S.,

 

I am in a similar situation with a new tsuba of mine. On my homepage (weblink below) I have a tsuba that is ex. Jim Gilbert collection that he attributed to Hirado Kunishige (平戸國重). I was expecting the NTHK Kanteisho paper to say the exact same thing his website says (http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/hoan.htm) (last tsuba on the page) and noticed the NTHK paper only attitubes the tsuba to "Hirado Saku (平戸作)". A literal translation of this attribution is "Hirado Made". After spending a few hours of study with a few different references one which the NTHK does not have access to I have came to the same conclusion as Mr. Gilbert that my new tsuba is the work of Hirado Kunishige. I am not sure which generation as there were two that were active during the middle Edo Period.

In my educated opinion your tsuba is the work of the 4th generation Akasaka master Tadatoki who worked at the beginning of middle Edo Period. I think your tsuba like mine were victims of a overly conservative NTHK shinsa. My expressed opinion in regards to these two tsuba should not be interpreted as an attack on the NTHK. I will continue to enjoy submitting things to their upcoming US shinsa.

[Antti]

Thanks for you input mr. Stiles.

 

I do not know whether the NTHK was not sure whether my tsuba was done my Shodai Tadatoki or perhaps one of his students, but given the amount of points they gave and the rather specific time scale, it almost feels they went as far as they could, still being 100% sure of themselves, and left the generation attribution out. A reliable source said that it says in a Japanese text that this motif was only used by the first four generations.

 

I do remember reading about your Hirado on another topic. Really liked that tsuba by the way.

[Soshin]

A reliable source said that it says in a Japanese text that this motif was only used by the first four generations.

 

Hi Antti S.,

 

This makes sense as the Akasaka school after the fourth generation mostly made copies of Higo school works. Many of the original Akasaka school designs were lost or just not often used in their works.