The Signs Of Classical Training

[Ford Hallam]

One of the points I often try to convey, as a craftsman, when we're discussing whether or not a piece might be modern or antique is the evidence of classical training. The reality is that all of the classical training that had developed over a few hundred years was by the mid 1920's pretty much extinct.

 

There simply was no reason to sustain it. And by the time Japanese society began to recover after the second World War there was essentially no real living thread of that older tradition alive.

What this means is that tosogu made after the 1920's frequently exhibit traits that reveal their maker's lack of classical training and intuitive understanding of the original approaches to carving standard forms.

 

I'm using this date, 1920's,  as it seems from my research this is when the last of the old school members are no longer active, this being over 50 years since the abolition of wearing swords in public and the dissolution of the warrior class.

 

Things that would be everyday details in a composition, like waves, leaves, little faces and hands, the scales of fish or dragons...the list goes on. In any traditional or classical art-form for those details that become essentially part of the visual language they developed particular methods of creating these aspects efficiently and accurately. This was a very important aspect of classical training and is how continuity was maintained in those traditions. These were the basics any apprentice had to master before being allowed to put his name to metal or put work out under the school's approval.

 

Even when, on the relatively rare occasions, a creative genius emerged they were inevitably initially well schooled in the essentials of their parent school before they went further to develop their own fresh expression...always built firmly on the past.

I was watching this short piece of film this morning, of Buddhist statuary carvers, and thought that the almost kata-like approach they take in the way various elements are carved might help illustrate what I mean by the methodology of the classical approach to training and how you might recognise where it is absent.

 

Here's a link to the film.

 

 

There's an efficiency and clarity here that for those of us lacking classical training must be very mindful of. We know so very little about the actual workshop practice of the old masters, their works leave us clues of course and this is why utsushi study is so vital if we are to even begin to properly 'see' and fully appreciate the work they left to us.

 

Have a good week-end,

 

Ford

[Ford Hallam]

My friend, kumihimo maker, Michael made the following observations which I though added something more the what I was attempting to convey.

 

 

There is a certainty and fluidity of movement that is so apparent, along with the resulting certainty and fluidity of the piece itself; there are no shortcuts to achieving this. As Seki-san states, the video is a demonstration of the result of their 20 years of study (they must have started at age 3....).

The pace of the modern world does not lend itself to such protracted study anymore, and I fight against this all the time with kumihimo, outside of Japan, that is.

People will not take the time to firmly learn the basics; after doing a simple 4-strand braid once, they want to then try the most complicated braid they can find, and then wonder why their braids look terrible. They laugh when I tell them that I spent a month braiding and unbraiding that very simple 4-strand braid, over and over, until it became part of me. "You can't seriously expect us to do that! That's the easiest braid there is!" And no, I don't expect them to do that, but I do tell them that in classical kumihimo training, that simple 4-strand braid is considered "the" most difficult braid to do well; when their years of training come to an end, the test of whether they have learned well or not is to braid that simple 4-strand braid, not a complicated braid. If they can't, then they fail. The simplicity of that braid shows even the slightest inconsistency of technique in glaring proportions.

[ROKUJURO]

Ford,

I understand perfectly well what you and Michael are referring to. I don't really know where all the wonderful 'science of the crafts' was lost. A good craftsman used to be a serious person with a lot of knowledge that was confirmed by his own experience.

I often watch videos on forging - it is a professional desease, I think - and I am surprised and disappointed at the same time to see that many of these 'smiths' obviously never heard about forging technique. They just hammer the warm steel and hope to give it a shape. They don't care about stance or height of the anvil, and they don't even know how to hold the hammer correctly. In the videos we can't see or hear it, but I am convinced many of them never heard that even the breath flow is important. These are all basics, and I cannot believe that all is forgotten!

There must be something like an exaggerated self-confidence that makes these people think that they are real smiths and could teach others. But the real craft forms on the long range by watching the master and then working many hours at the anvil. What makes it look so easy when you see a master smith working comes only from having trained the basisc over and over again.   

[Curran]

Hi Ford,

 

Interesting timing, in that I have recently been traveling down part of this country road myself.

I stumbled into a few things I wasn't expecting.

 

I've been dealing with an artist that was born around 1910. His father and extended relatives had made sword fittings, then switching to inro, vases, and other such areas over the years.

I've scoured for their fittings, but found few though they are all listed in Haynes Index. Mostly other examples of vases, plaques, other works have come up. They enjoyed commercial success.

Then with the military revivalism of the 1930s, the artist seems to have been commissioned to make copies of some of the great tsuba of Japan- 100 of them, with the descriptions and number in the series inside the presentation boxes.

 

The skill is very high. There is considerable evidence that they had access to the originals, as the mimi not seen in photos is copied correctly down to the last imperfection or tekkotsu.

The mimi is also marked such that they cannot be passed off as the originals to anyone that gives them inspection. Though I think it obvious they (circa 1930s) lacked the 300+ years of age compared to the originals.

The father wrote an Art related book of which I am trying to get a copy, publication in the year before his death of pneumonia in the hospital. He passed in December 1940, leaving his son in charge of the foundry. Then WW2. I know he survived the War, but not much else at present. I doubt he was involved with fittings.

 

The skill existed into the 1930s, and survived the War.

This may just be a rare exception, but there was a short lived return to fittings making for these artists in the 1930s. Even if simply regarded as copyists, they were very good.

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Curran

 

Can you share the name of this artist, I may have some info that might be helpful. Also, do you have any images of his work you could scan in so we could see what he was making?

[Curran]

Hi Ford,

 

I'll PM or email later. I have one of the tsuba here and can photograph later.

I also have some links to online examples of father and son work. All non-kodogu examples. One is in one of your British Museums.

At first glance, I would have attributed their work as Hamano but somehow decidedly 20th century. It has some sort of subtle 20th century indicator, which could be western perspective.

You would know better than I. Sort of early Tiffany's vase meets Japan rendering of rabbits and such.

 

For various reasons, I'd considered sending this tsuba to you- but hadn't quite gotten there yet.

I think this team is an exception- not the norm. With the son born in 1910, the timing worked out for them "just so". Otherwise, I think your theory largely holds.

From a biologist point of view dealing with a significant impact event on an ecosystem, ultimately your math is the way of mother nature.

 

Curran

[Ford Hallam]

Toyokawa Mitsunaga II et al? :-)

[Curran]

PM sent.

I'm still working on this topic, but had to set it aside for now.