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Kaneiye Tsuba


Rigbone

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Hi Joe,

I have a couple of ‘Kaneie’ tsuba, one of which seems to have similar features to yours and may be by one of the Saga Kaneie.  My tsuba was in a mixed lot and rather grubby when I bought it, but has cleaned up nicely and most of the brown patina seems to be extant.  I gather that there were about a dozen tsubako named Kaneie plus students and fakers who also signed Kaneie.   So I hope you find the following helpful.

My tsuba is an oval flat iron plate with a slightly raised rim and Chinese landscape (sansui), both formed by sukidashi bori (engraving the ji of the tsuba to leave the design in high relief) highlighted with gold.  On one side there are two pointed stooks of rice, each engaved with fine lines and tipped with gold, near the shore of a lake.  At the top of the tsuba is the moon, or sun, depicted in gold, partially covered by cloud.  The the other side shows a low bridge, supprted in the middle, spanning two shorelines  and at the top is a mountain in low relief.  A few specks of silver and gold are scattered around but there is no discernable human or animal form on either side.  This type of landscape design is referred to as sansui (mountain and water).  The surface of the ji shows areas of what looks like tsuchime (hammer marks), but may be due to areas of local corrosion and also shows clusters of small lumps (ca. 1 mm diameter) which may be tekkotsu.The nakago ana has a sekigane at the tip and is flared at the base, where a second sekigane may have been.  There are no tegane (chisel) marks around the nakago ana.  There are the usual two ryo hitsu for kogai and kodzuka which have been filled with cat scratched shakudo plugs (partly worn to expose the unpatinated copper base shakudo).

My tsuba (like many others) is signed Yamashiro kuni Fushimi Ju Kaneie (Kaneie of Fushimi village [Near Kyoto] in Yamashiro province).  Joshu Kaneie and two others of the same name were the famous Kaneie tsubako of the late 16thC.  It is reported that they were probably Buddhist monks, perahaps all from the same temple.  A large (8.5 cm) example attributed one of these (signed Yamashiro kuni Fushimi ju Kaneie) is shown in Masterpieces from the Randolf B. Caldwell Collection (#4, page 14).

Other tsubako named Kaneie worked in the early Edo period and are usually referred to as the Saga Kaneie or Tetsunin Kaneie School in Kyoto.  Aoki Tetsunin Kaneie was born in Fushimi in 1594 and later went to Edo to form the Tetsunin School and died in 1675.  Various members of this School seemed to have signed ‘Kaneie’ as well as their own names.  An example by kodai (later or last generation) Kaneie (signed Yamashiro kuni Fushimi Ju Kaneie) is shown in the Nhon To Koza, vol VI, page 177 and is similar in design, having the gold moon or sun.

In conclusion, although the sansui design, sukidashi bori carving and limited highlighting in gold are all features of tsubako named Kaneie, there were several with this name (9 according to one source), plus their signatures were extensively copied by other workers within the School and outside.  Another reference states that the 16thC Kaneie tsuba are thin (1.5-2 mm) and the Tetsunin tsuba are 3-3.5 mm, as this tsuba.  Although no reliance can be placed upon the signature on this tsuba, it may be from the Tetsunin School.

Height: 8.9 cm, Width: 7.9 cm, Thickness: 0.3 cm, Weight: 146 g

Best regards, John

Kaneie 1.JPG

kaneie 2.JPG

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Hello. Thanks for the very informative post John.  If I can add just a couple of observations that you've already alluded to; First, the thickness. Joe, your tsuba seems to be slightly domed?...at least a bit thicker than John's. It is almost certain that when John's tsuba is held up and gently tapped it will ring like a bell. All of the real Saga Kaneiye tsuba I've held have this fine iron quality. On Joe's tsuba the top left stroke of the mei rides over the top left stroke. On all of my Saga Kaneiye tsuba which have passed Mr. Haynes' muster have the opposite overlap, as does John's which is real Saga Kaneiye. Another observation was pointed out here once regarding the mountains; the Saga mountain, it was said, comes to more of a point while the Shoami is rounded. Mr. Haynes said that the Saga Kaneiye is one of the areas which has not received the research that other schools  have so you've got some fun ahead.   

 

 

.      Regards,   John

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