Help, please, with a Meiji tsuba ...

[docliss]

Realising that this heavy, Meiji tsuba may not be to everybody’s taste, I should nevertheless be grateful for some help with the inscription and with a possible attribution.

 

It is of red bronze, measuring 9.4 cm – 7.8 cm. The obverse has a delicate ishime surface with a very high relief iroye of nigurome and gold depicting DaikokÅ«, with his hammer on a golden cord. Attendant gold and silver rats are present, and there is also a shimenawa with shakudÅ. gold and silver, New Year pendants. There are four tagane-mei on the seppa-dai. The reverse is very highly polished and depicts a hon-zÅgan, shakudÅ kite on a gold string, floating above gold cottages in a low relief landscape.

 

I have managed (I think) the following translations:

JUSO with kao

GENJI (KI) GINNEN KINOE NE SHUN KA (A Day in Spring, 1864)

KEIDO SEN-SU (Composed by Sen-Su) ISSONDOSHI.

But I have not succeeded with a further transcription above the mei.

 

JÅ«sÅ is one of the many gÅ used by Tanaka Kiyotoshi, and the mei illustrated on

p.173a-d of KinkÅ Meikan is not dissimilar to that on this tsuba, which is, I assume, gimei.

 

With thanks, John L.

[Nobody]

æ–¼æ±éƒ½ x ä¹… x x x – at Toto (= Edo) …?

壽åŸé€  – Juso made

 

元治元甲å­æ˜¥æ—¥ – a spring day in 1864

應需摸一è¶é¸ç­† – responding to the request to copy the touch of Itcho (maybe 英一è¶?)

(I could be totally wrong in guessing this last line. I am only 50 % sure. )

[docliss]

Dear Koichi

 

Thank you so much for your help with the translation - what should we all do without your help?

 

John L.

[Bungo]

" responding to the request to copy the touch of Itcho (maybe 英一�)"

 

....................

 

I see Itcho's touch on quite a few fittings ( esp. koz ).

 

I love the Tsuba, nice .

 

milt

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi John,here comes a pic with signatures+Kao of your artist:Juso/Ikkanshi/Kiyotoshi.Ludolf

[docliss]

Thanks Ludolf. Do you agree that the mei on my tsuba is very like those on your illustrations, but that the kao on mine is a lot less florid? I remain suspicious that mine is gimei - what do you think? Interestingly, Koichi thinks that the final character on my tsuba is not a kao, but rather the kanji for 'tsukuru'. I suspect that it could equally easily be either.

 

Regards, John L.

[Ludolf Richter]

Your Tsuba was made by a very good artist.Besides Gimei (a slightly different Kao,nearly identical names characters) there is an other possibility:made by a top-student,like with other Tosogu-school examples?!Ludolf

[Brian]

This is very good work in my humble opinion. The mei is very fluid and confident. It may not match exactly, but with the added bit about being custom ordered I don't think this will be some normal gimei if it isn't right. This would be a good piece to send to shinsa. The different ground on either side and the charming aspect are very effective, and as Ludolf said, this could be a student work. I would tend to think it is correct though, with the mei varying slightly due to different periods of manufacture or the spacial constraints with the added text. In either case, a very nice tsuba indeed.

 

Brian

[Lorenzo]

Sorry Brian, maybe I am misunderstanding; you think that if the mei is gimei it could still be something special because the inscription says it was a "special order"?

 

If the mei is fake then all the writing is fake; isn't it?

[Brian]

Hi Lorenzo,

No, what i was trying to say (and badly at that :D ) is that whilst not impossible at all... I thought there was less chance of it being gimei because of the extra story attached to it. If you are going to fake a signature, it is easier to just do the mei without making up a whole other story that might catch you out.

As I said...it isn't impossible as there are gimei swords and fittings out there with entire stories engraved to go with them. But I just thought in this case it looks less likely combined with the good workmanship and plausibility of the statement on the tsuba.

When i said about it not being "some normal gimei" I was thinking that if it isn't by the maker himself, then maybe it is from a student or someone allowed to sign that way by the teacher, and not a normal (usual) gimei purely intended to deceive.

 

 

Brian

[Ford Hallam]

This is a genuine Kiyotoshi tsuba, most of you will probably know it well from "Lethal Elegance". I think the difference in technique and quality is fairly well evident. Sorry John...but I think you already know this. :? There are a few more examples, both of the school and Kiyotoshi's work, on the MFA website.

 

Tanaka Kiyotoshi was a friend of Kano Natsuo's and his work is of a similarly, very high, standard.

 

I also don't think the "special order" addition to the mei is in the slightest way convincing. From my experience this is exactly the sort of extra detail fakers try to employ to deceive the gullible. It's merely a bit of advertising, it's telling you directly, that it's a special piece...sadly though, the tsuba itself tells a different story. This is a perfectly credible, very late tsuba, made for the tourist market probably, but that is all. The "mei" is just part of the decoration and in all likelihood was added at the request of an unscrupulous dealer who knew full well that ignorant Westerners wanted pretty tsuba with the signatures of famous artists on them.

 

If this was a sword you would examine the workmanship and general quality of the blade before considering the mei....why is this practice not followed with regards to tsuba and other fittings? Copying a mei is probably the easiest part of making a convincing copy...getting the technique, style and skill right is where all the differences appear.