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Interesting Tsuba #2

Blazeaglory

By Blazeaglory
in Tosogu

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Blazeaglory Mentor

Blazeaglory

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The Tsuba shows a maple leaf, not hemp.

You know I thought it was maple leaves at first as well but then upon closer inspection I'm not so sure.

 

Our ancestors have been smoking medicinally for thousands of years so wouldn't surprise me. They found solid gold Scythian opium and cannabis dispenser that's roughly 2000 years old. So maybe this samurai had a hemp farm empire? Ropes cloth paper medical etc...

 

But anyways you're both probably right and I'm not too serious about this so please don't take anything personal. Whether Japanese maple or cannabis the resemblance is pretty close haha

 

D

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vajo Grand Master

vajo

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Dwain you know maybe the movie the seven samurai. Kambei Shimada says in one scene after Kikuchiyo came drunken inside the hut, that a samurai never drink so much loosing his instincts (or something like that). 

Its a movie thats true but i think for myself that a good samurai don't smoke cannabis and never would show this on his fittings to his opponents.  :glee:

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JohnTo Community Regular

JohnTo

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Hopefully it is difficult for NMB members to differentiate between the leaves of cannabis and acer palmatum, both commonly have 7 serated sections to their leaves and are virtually identical when taken out of natural context, e.g. depicted on a tsuba.  I'm told that the leaves can be told apart by the smell when burnt, but I have no experience of burning maple leaves.  Besides, its difficult to burn an iron tsuba (not that I would want to).

Just for you delectation I attach pics of a tsuba of mine which includes a beech tree branch with nuts, a single ginko leaf, a pine cone and a cannabis/maple leaf.  As the others are woodland plants, I assume it to be maple.  The description of the tsuba is:

This iron sukashi tsuba depicts leaves and a pine cone carved in three dimensions and is highlighted in gold nunome zogan (hammering gold leaf into a criss-cross engraving).  The tsuba is 'signed' Nagato (Choshu) Hagi Ju Sakunoshin Tomohisa, who was the first generation master of the Yazu (often pronounced Yaji) School and active in the Enpo (1673-81) and Jokyo (1684-88) periods.  The translation of the signature is ‘Nagato Hagi Ju’: ‘Resident of Hagi in Nagato (Choshu) province’, ‘Sakunoshin Tomohisa’: ‘Tomohisa, personal name Sakunoshin’.  Seven generations of artisans, all using the same kanji for Tomo as the first part of their names, are listed by Markus Sesko and were active until about 1850.

I have seen other examples of this design, one signed Rakurakusai Tomosada, so I guess it was popular.

Height:  7.5 cm, Width:  7.3 cm Thickness:  0.4 cm

 

Best regards, John

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Blazeaglory Mentor

Blazeaglory

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Dwain you know maybe the movie the seven samurai. Kambei Shimada says in one scene after Kikuchiyo came drunken inside the hut, that a samurai never drink so much loosing his instincts (or something like that).

Its a movie thats true but i think for myself that a good samurai don't smoke cannabis and never would show this on his fittings to his opponents. :glee:

I agree but being drunk and stoned are really two different things. Too much saki and you can tell a person is wasted but too much cannabis and we would never know.

 

I think we are looking at it through modern eyes and modern opinions and concepts. While I agree that samurai would or should never be so impaired that they couldn't concentrate and it messed with their balance etc... I think on the ground during the moment I'm sure many samurai liked to hit the saki hard at times but according to modern romanticized bushido a proper samurai would or should never do that. I also notice allot of drinking in the movies from the 60s and 70s. It seems every main samurai gets drunk like a skunk haha

 

Anyways there was a burial of a Viking queen that was roughly 1000 years old. She wss also buried with her elderly nanny that they sacrificed along side her. Inside her medicinal pouch was nothing but marijuana. It wasn't until the early/mid 20th century that our governments started demonizing cannabis.

 

I do think the tsuba is Japanese maple but I couldn't resist the joke. I always like a healthy debate too. Thanks for the great info and putting up with my somewhat controversial topics!

 

D

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