Menuki

[Mark C]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm looking to mount an iron sayagata (Manji) fuchi & Kashira.

 

Could I please ask for your thoughts/ideas for a pair of menuki that would be a suitable match.

 

Thanks in advance

 

All the best

[Ford Hallam]

I don't think, historically speaking, there's any need to try and create matching sets. The concept of unified themes is not something we really see until relatively late in the Edo period and then generally on koshirae that are clearly meant to be exceptional statement pieces. 

 

More typical is an arrangement of carefully considered complimentary fittings. A bit like the accoutrements used in the tea ceremony, matching anything would be considered a big no no.

 

So if you have a set of iron f/k with a geometric pattern, (gold or silver?) you have a starting point that's quite sombre and perhaps might feel well ordered and regulated. This could be juxtaposed by some gold menuki of flowers, for example, being soft and loose in feeling.

 

An amusing possibility would be menuki in the form of carpenters marking out tools, as though they were used to mark out the sayagata pattern.

 

Menuki of a scabbard and some wooden clogs, would be an amusing pun too, saya geta.