Matsu tsuba design study

[Ford Hallam]

A few years ago Ikeda Nagamasa Sensei, the sword polisher, gave me a series of study sheets that his father, the scholar Ikeda Suematsu, used to use when lecturing on aspects of tsuba appreciation.

 

In response to a recent thread on a similar pierced design I thought this particular sheet might be a good starting point for some considered analysis of the design.

 

I don't want to say much more at this stage but rather would invite you to make your own observations and comparisons. Feel free to say what you see and think about what elements or particular tsuba most appeal to you.

 

 

Click on the image to see a much larger version.

 

It would seem tsuba no:3 was perhaps an experiment to see if the design worked flipped over as a mirror image. What do you think, does it work as well?

And for comparison here's the same design in a more usual alignment.

 

 

 

[Brian Ayres]

#2 catches my eye. The transitions from the design to the mimi are clean. It’s iron looks pretty clean, maybe too clean? But overall it’s the one I like the best.

#1 is interesting with the shakudo fillers around the seppa dai. It seems like someone went to a lot of trouble to mount it. Those inserts through off the negative space and are a bit detracting from the design.

#4’s iron looks a little more organic and pleasing. I do like it as well. #3 is awkward backwards. #5 I am the least impressed with.

[Ganko]

#1 and #2 are almost identical in form and quality except #1 has had shakudo fillers added around the seppa dai to increase it's diameter to match a saya and fuchi. This spoils the appearance and balance of the composition. The should have used a proportionately larger tsuba for mounting.

#3 has fat and flat tree trunks which are too large and out of balance.

#4  is not detailed or finely finished enough but, it is still better than #5 whose kogai ana is also poorly shaped.

I think #1 may be the best one if all the shakudo fillers are removed.

#2 is almost as good as #1

[DirkO]

#1 has the most organic form, elegant distribution of niku along the mimi. It's thin where the branches seem to want to push out of the form. The mimi also accentuates the form better than the other examples.

The completing of the seppa with sekigane is - I think - an early afterthought to its creation or even an initial part of it. The curvature of the underside of the pine bushes suggests more movement than the others, creating a sense of wind, which is enhanced by position and form of the mimi, where #4 and #5 are more static. Very free, creative design. If I didn't know the maker, I would say Kanshiro. 

[Brian]

#4 Just seems awkward to me. Something just doesn't gel.
I notice the kogai and kozuka ana alignment on most of them is very different to the "control" example.

[myochin]

Isn't the comparison tsuba the same as #3 ?

[Bugyotsuji]

Nos. 1 and 3 seem to have some kind of support (reinforcement?) slug for the top (branch) of the tree. Was that a weak spot?

[myochin]

_{Piers, I believe that that is done to adapt the tsuba to a new saya with a different (bigger) sized fuchi.}

 

_Paul

[Ford Hallam]

Thank you, Gentleman, your observations are providing me with more to think about too.

 

At this point I would like to suggest that you try and see the negative, or 'white' spaces first. This is a way of seeing the composition afresh, and a means of more clearly starting to asses the balance and interplay between the spaces and the design. My mother, an accomplished artist, used always to refer to the negative spaces in sukashi tsuba as either happy or unhappy spaces. Are they interesting in their own right? are they 'useful' in the way they echo and contrast the shapes that are left? Perhaps look at the design upside down to see the white parts, or squint until your focus shifts from the actual tsuba to the spaces instead. 

 

The second point, already noted by many of you, is the actual lines that make up the design. Are they interesting and 'telling a story' in each segment? A good composition or design ought not to have any weak or pointless lines or shapes, every detail must be doing something.

[kissakai]

Looking at the 'white' spaces to me No 4 & 5 do seem unsettling

This is a new way of observing a tsuba so maybe way off

Interesting

[Ganko]

Looking at the white spaces, I still have a preference for #1(without the shakudo fills around the seppa dai).

#2 is pretty close, #4 are just not well balanced to my eyes

#3 It's rim is not concentric with the nakago ana. Out of balance

[Brian]

Very much enjoying this new way of looking at tsuba. I am easily able to focus on the "negative" spaces and see them in relation to others or as a whole themselves. Really does change the way each tsuba looks too.
I am not ready to make any statements yet, but some of them look far more awkward and forced than others. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but #3 starts to look even more odd to me. Like the design was just "plopped" down there and spread out. Blobby springs to mind. My opinion on #4 didn't change either. Need more time to look at them. Great post Ford.

[1kinko]

It's more tricky than I thought since the angles in the photographs are not the same.  Numbers 1 and 2 are, to me, the most balanced and nuanced, but this is influenced by the pictures of #1 (and #3) being taken from slightly above the meridian. Nevertheless, #2 appears to me to be more sinuous, more tree-like.  The presence of 3 branches on the right of the central trunk of #2 and the apparently larger hitsuannas also add to this sinuosity.  Adding the ateganes in #4 ruins the composition and number 5 is just too flat and mechanical for me.  Number 3 just doesn't cut it- Isn't it interesting how we read an image from left to right, like we read books?  Since Japanese is read from top to bottom, right to left, does this mean we see images differently too? Great topic, thanks Ford.

[Steve Waszak]

As is true for so many things aesthetic, the Japanese have a term for the interplay between positive and negative space:  Nohtan (濃淡)

 

The content in the link below focuses on nohtan in painting, but it's worth thinking about how the term and concept apply to sukashi tsuba design.  

 

https://drawpaintacademy.com/notan/

[b.hennick]

I was told a long time ago is that it is best to look at a tsuba with a tsuka correctly placed. You would then see it as someone looking at the tsuba mounted on a sword.

[Tigerinbamboo]

I like #2, far and away. Both the positive and negative spaces share a flow and a delicacy. In the others, the tree trunk is too heavy and clunky. #5 looks like someone took a bite out of it.

[Greg F]

vor me number 2 looks best. When I see tsuba with tree's like thix I look at it like a bonsai and 2 has the best flow and proportion imo.

Thanks Ford san.

 

Greg

[Brian]

Ford, any update or comments on this?

[Ford Hallam]

Hey Brian, there's so much to talk about that'd be awkward to write about so I've decided to make a film presentation of that sheet. I'll get it completed this week and post a link here.

[Oshy]

I have to agree with others, #2 would be my preference

[Michael 101]

I just see absolutely stunning examples of the work of the first two Hayashi masters - No 5 I think I would consider doing anything short of murder to obtain. No3 is a rare signed Shigemitsu ( 2nd Hayashi ) which is I am pretty certain Juyo rated ( as is no 5 for certain ) 
 

the pictures do no justice to the iron quality but do serve the purpose for design comparison. 

very interesting post 
 

kindest regards 

 

Michael 

[Ken-Hawaii]

Tsuba #2 has the most-interesting negative spaces, while still having the best ironwork design.

[Tanto54]

For those that like this kind of thing, noticed one for sale on ebay (not mine and I'm not related to it in any way...)

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TSUBA-Japanese-Sword-guard-credibility-genuine-Antique-Original-limited-Matsu/114176467432?hash=item1a9572a1e8:g:uREAAOSw7elePaOV