Jump to content

Matsu tsuba design study


Ford Hallam

Recommended Posts

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.

 

post-164-0-93350900-1587668854_thumb.jpg

 

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.

 

post-164-0-99782900-1587669369_thumb.jpg

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

#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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

#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

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

#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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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/

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

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 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...