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Udenuki-no-ana, two holes near edge of tsuba


Bugyotsuji

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So far so good. However, I would like to take this a little further.

Some of the examples posted have only one hole in a position at the edge quadrant of the tsuba, some a single hole on the mune quadrant of the tsuba. I wonder what is the purpose of this when the tying of an udenuki no O is done in a specific way that requires two holes in a specific position. An udenuki No O has a specific purpose just as the sayadome also have a specific purpose. A single hole indicates possibly a different purpose. I have added a picture of one of my wakizashi tsuba with a single hole.

post-1773-14196923443861_thumb.jpg

 

There would seem to be no stylistic purpose to this one hole, which only leaves a practical reason for its presence. Any Ideas gentlemen??

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Bruno.

 

Not Udenuki ana on your tsuba........ Wrong location, too small, two sets. More like a motif of some kind. The theme is the deer at Nara, as you probably know. Not sure what the motif is though. Sayadome possibly but not so confident about that either.

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post-3440-14196923889807_thumb.jpg

The kawari mokkō-gata (変り木瓜形) tsuba is mine; the tsuba with udenuki-ana shaped as orbits of a skull is from "The Japanese sword and its fittings, from the collections of the members of the Japanese Sword Society of New York and the Cooper Union Museum", 1966, p. 22.

Bye, Mauro

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Things are not quite so simple as I had originally thought. To every rule there seems to be an exception!

 

Many thanks for the wonderful variety of examples. Plenty of food for thought. No database here, just an interesting topic for me personally and seemingly so too for the greater membership. :clap:

 

 

Incidentally the two Hitsu ana above look like Mt Fuji. (With two clouds above?)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Was going through some old threads and found this little interesting topic. Sorry to say I don´t visit the "Tosogu" area as much as I should.

One area of collecting I def don´t master. But there is still hope :D

 

Me and fellow boardmember Anthony, visited Kagoshima last year. Through contacts we got invited to the dojo of Jigen Ryo. A very old sword school famous for it´s aggressive style of fighting. We even got to train one hour with the current sensei and two of his students. When I say we, I should say Anthony. I managed to slip whilst in the bathroom, the very same morning, and broke my toe. Not my proudest moment...

Anyway... Besides the traning (aggressively beating the daylight out of a tree trunk) we also got a tour of the dojos small museum. Amongst many interesting object connected to the Jigen Ryu, was a handfull of tsubas.

Everyone showed the same traits. Very simple design. Two small holes punched into the iron. The overall size of the katana-tsubas was small compared to the "normal" tsubas. Through a interpreter the sensei kindly explained te reason for this look.

The simple design reflected the economic situation for many of the Satsuma samurai. Having the largest number of samurais in Japan (over 30000) the individual samurai had a rather small stipend compare to other areas in Japan.

The two small holes (the same size) was used as a way of control for the sensei. The first rule of Jigen Ryu is "A sword shall not be drawn from it´s scabbard unless it is to attack"

The sensei tied a small string of ricepaper to the saya. If the student came back with the string broken, he had to explain the reason why. With the nature of the Jigen Ryu, I guess the student also had to present the head of his opponent :)

The reason for the small size of the tsuba was very clear. A student of Jigen Ryu only needs one strike. Two strikes is inconceivably. Therefore there is no need for a big tsuba to protect the wearer of the sword. Nuff said!!!

Here´s a picture of my Satsuma-tsuba Jigen Ryu-style. Looks very much alike the ones in the museum.

 

 

Jan

post-2890-14196927939358_thumb.jpeg

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[attachment=0]udenuki-ana.jpg[/attachment]

The kawari mokkō-gata (変り木瓜形) tsuba is mine; the tsuba with udenuki-ana shaped as orbits of a skull is from "The Japanese sword and its fittings, from the collections of the members of the Japanese Sword Society of New York and the Cooper Union Museum", 1966, p. 22.

Bye, Mauro

 

That skull tsuba is incredible. Any idea what the inscription says?

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  • 6 years later...

This is my example of udenuki no ana in collection.

796120334_myochinkiyoshishige.thumb.jpg.f65b2028069d5cf73b86d1928bae8df6.jpg

And a simplier design from same smith (myochin ki yoshishige)
i-img1200x1175-1600265122pd1uck213089.thumb.jpg.7f7ba6e0fe27dd4c9ba4e40ae266adf8.jpg
I have a question, I saw several early tsuba with only one hole on bottom, not two, one seemed to be a kokinko, not sure, but looked old, the other was an iron, but with ganmaku later add, and from what I remember, ganmaku was popular during momoyama period, so it means the tsuba would be older, and it also had one single hole on bottom, maybe it's for same purpose, and then fashion changed, two holes were more efficient than only one?!

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I was once told that many sukashi tsuba would not have needed any Udenuki-ana, but at least one design supplied by Christianmalterre above throws some doubt on that theory.  I have a few examples that if not strickly designed as Udenuki-ana could certainly serve the same purpose. The Tanto guard with the single hole is probably a 'Water droplet' design in keeping with the round indents on the surface of the leaf. The sukashi 'snow banks?' on the lower side of Fuji on the second guard are positioned well for Udenuki-ana as are the inome and 'monkey tumbler?' on the Kaneiye. The Iron nanako has the more conventional twin holes, the lighting does not show well the two colours of the linings. Has anyone fitted a strap to their mounted guards? I have, and the only way that makes sense is to have the Udenuki-ana on the Mune side of the guard away from the blade edge. Try it, don't assume it.

one hole versus two.jpg

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Just to add these two. 
The first is signed Yama Kichibei but the condition is not good. The holes look practical and aesthetically pleasing.


The second is signed Tadatsugu, (possibly Umetada school of Kyoto). The holes seem to be a design feature to offset the chrysanthemum leaf sukashi.

1AD8F9B4-32BE-46C1-9D74-BE32CDF35A67.jpeg

FCE21E12-39B2-46E2-A6C2-AA115ABEB6DC.jpeg

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Piers that  leaf sukashi is very, very nice🤩. The second hole is very small, you are probably right about it being a design rather than udenuki-ana.

I have a huge 'Temple offering' guard? The two holes are big enough to thread rope and both are the same size, so I would think they too, are a design and not for practical use - unless the guy using it was eight foot tall! [Would love to have seen the whole sword]

giant kobushi flash.jpg

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Piers I think the panels [ategane/ume?] are yamagane or shibuichi, they are a bit dirty and probably need a clean but I don't want to spoil the 'rustic' effect. The seppa was just laying about so I stuck it up so it wouldn't get lost 🙃 . What do other people do with their seppa? Stick them away in a box? - are seppa part of tosogu or not?😄  I have a B&W pic of the guard without the seppa - you will notice it was a bargain price - I think everyone was asleep when it went to auction. - It has a Miochin look to it but, also that early Katchushi - looks like the smith didn't get rid of all the slag and liked the 'natural' effect. I like it for its shape - and Captain America said he would buy it, if he ever lost his shield😉.

 

giant kobushi.jpg

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Why was it so cheap, I wonder?  The metal alone should be worth more than that.

(Seppa I guess most people keep in a box or drawer somewhere. Not to worry about the side panels. There are some similar ones in a tsuba that I came across recently, but that would be off-topic.)

 

PS The sukashi leaf in the Tadatsugu tsuba above could be either 菊 Kiku (chrysanthemum) or 梶 Kaji (Paper mulberry), which appear to my eyes to be identical in my Mon book. The 'edit' function has since disappeared, so I'm adding this information here.

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14 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Now that is a most unusual tsuba, George, in construction and material. Are those solid iron reinforcing ridges? They remind me of a particular Mon. What do you know about it? The gold and silver ring seats do seem to pick up on the sun and moon theme.

 

Piers,

I actually can't tell if the ridges are worked from the back or not - the iron part is fitted into a gold "cup".  I posted a while back about this piece here:
 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

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