Insulting Monkey Tsuba

[JohnTo]

I thought that an unusual feature this 1000 monkey tsuba might be of interest.  You might like to go straight to the pics and see if you can spot it.  But first, for those unfamiliar with 1000 monkeys, some background info on this type of tsuba that I gleaned from literature (I’m no authority and much was taken from an excellent article by Robert Burawoy, Bushido, 3, number 1 p18-21).

Makers:  I believe that this design of tsuba originated with the three Mitsuhiro tsubako (father, brother and son) who lived in Yagami, a part of Nagasaki in the 18^th and 19thC.  Mitsuhiro I probably studied at the Nanban School in Nagasaki before moving to Yagami in Hizen province.  The Nanban influence can be seen in the tsuba which is rather stiff and flat in design compared to Mitsuhiro II (regarded as far the best and died in 1823, aged 75) who’s monkeys are rounded and vary in both size and activity.  Mitsuhiro III (died in the Meiji period aged 70) did not produce many works and these were like his father’s.  Their works tend to be signed Hishu or Hizen Yagami Ju Mitsuhiro and they worked in both iron and brass (sentoku).  This tsuba is mumei (unsigned) and may not have been made by any of the Mitsuhiro’s, as others copied their work.

1000 animal tsuba:  I’ve seen tusba with both monkeys and horses, but there may be other animals in their designs.  Monkeys are the most abundant and this tsuba contains about 40 monkeys, but had they been continued around the rim, as is common, there would have been about twice as many; but still far short of 1000.  Therefore, many people refer to the design as 100 monkeys, but the Japanese description is ‘sen.biki.saru’ literally ‘1000 units of monkeys’.  The Mitsuhiro’s obviously believed in marketing and stretching the truth (some tsuba are inscribed ‘sentoku kin wo mote kore wo tsukuru’, ‘made with sentoku’, but some believe they just used a cheaper brass alloy.  Inventive marketing again!).  Most of the monkeys just seem to be scrabbling around in these tsuba, but if you look carefully four groups are often involved in specific activities.  Usually found at the top are the three wise monkeys (see, hear and speak no evil), as in this tsuba.  In the bottom half can be found a pair monkeys sitting and facing each other with a loop of rope around their necks having some sort of neck wrestling contest (the monkeys appear in this tsuba without the rope).  Another monkey can often be seen carrying some sort of baton, paddle or gunbai (as in this example) while another monkey is sometimes depicted as holding a giant peach (absent in this tsuba and I wonder if the peach is actually a tama jewel considering the Nanban influence on Mitsuhiro).  If anyone has info on this odd choice of subjects, please comment.

Although this tsuba is nicely carved it is rather flat, especially when compared to second generation work.  The eyes of the monkeys seem to be inlayed with sub-mm spots of gold (a bit dirty to see clearly).  Mitsuhiro I carved monkeys around the rim in a uniform manner, whereas Mitsuhiro II carved them in a variety of poses.  This tsuba has a simple mimi with gold nunome cross hatchings, resembling examples of the I and III generation artists.  So my evaluation is that the tsuba is quite skilfully carved and inlayed, but no way near the quality of Mitsuhiro II and possibly not by any of the other two generations either.

However, this tsuba has an unusual feature (unique as far as my limited experience is concerned).  Seven of the monkeys are wearing court caps highlighted in gold nunome and three of these are the three wise monkeys.  Another is the one carrying the baton/gunbai and the other three seem be just part of the general melee.  Any ideas why seven were selected?  Although the three wise monkeys are of ancient origin they seem to have become famous after being carved over a door at the mausoleum of Togugawa Ieyasu at the Nikko Toshogu shrine (see pic).  A gunbai (war fan) is the badge of authority of a commander and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (nick named Kozaru, Little Monkey) is also commemorated at the Nikko shrine.  The rope wrestling and peach carrying monkeys are noticeable by their absence.  In view of this I wonder if the tsuba was a special order from someone who did not like the Tokugawa’s and wanted to imply that Ieyasu, Hideyoshi etc. were a bunch of monkeys.  In which case, I can understand why the maker did not want to sign this piece and be identified to anyone in the shogunate.

Maybe my imagination is taking flight, so constructive comments welcome as always.

Metrics: Height: 7.1 cm; Width: 6.7 cm;  Thickness (rim): 0.45 cm;  Weight: 106g

Best regards, John

(just someone making observations, asking questions and trying to learn)

[Curran]

Yep. A little politically charged... kinda like the pro-blue vs pro-red at the 4 way intersection north of here.

This is the first time I have seen one of these 1000 monkeys with this element.

 

Here is an Ichiryu Tomotoshi I once owned. The frontside was horses n monkeys,

but the backside had a little political commentary too.

 

 

 

[Brian]

Wonderful writeup John, and a very pleasant tsuba. Thanks for sharing

[Ford Hallam]

The addition of the court caps to the monkeys is unusual, yes, and it's hard to ignore the probable political criticism implied. These sorts of 'not so subtle' coded messages seem to have been a regular feature of Edo period tosogu and art but I suspect that their popularity was mostly confined to the more wealthy merchant class, who had many legitimate gripes with 'the management', the Shogunate. 

 

With respect to the referenced article by Robert Burawoy, I actually bought a full set of the Bushido journals for that article and one on Ezo koshirae to familiarise myself with both. Disappointingly neither article holds up to any considered scrutiny.

 

In his article Mr Burohow claims to be able to distinguish the first and second generation Mitsuhiro work from each other, ( the third is essentially irrelevant here.) And while he tells us he can't illustrate these identifying difference in the images very well the expert, trained eye, can see the qualitative differences in hand. So far so good and I'd be happy to go along thus far... however, at no point is it made clear how exactly we are to know which is which. We are advised that the finer work is the second generation but not how we know that. Why not claim that the finer work is the first generation? In the absence of signed and dated work there is no evidence either way!

All we might say is that there appears to be a difference in quality that might indicate the separate makes, and that's all. 

 

The same issue bedevils the study of Nobuie tsuba. If we accept that there were two initial great masters, 1st and second generations so to speak (and on no evidence other than speculation and ignore the 7 or so early makers previously 'identified' by Akiyama et al. ) we still have no way of reasonably identifying which came first, thin signature or fat signature. We don't even know Nobuie's real name, or any dates...🤔

 

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

On 10/24/2020 at 4:18 PM, JohnTo said:

.....1000 animal tsuba:  I’ve seen tusba with both monkeys and horses, but there may be other animals in their designs.  Monkeys are the most abundant and this tsuba contains about 40 monkeys, but had they been continued around the rim, as is common, there would have been about twice as many; but still far short of 1000.  Therefore, many people refer to the design as 100 monkeys, but the Japanese description is ‘sen.biki.saru’ literally ‘1000 units of monkeys’.  The Mitsuhiro’s obviously believed in marketing and stretching the truth....

John,

calling this a '1.000 monkey TSUBA' is not a lack of precision of the Japanese. It is just their expression for 'very many'. It is similar to the O-MINOGAME, the '1.000 year old sea-turtle', which is very old, but certainly not 1.000 years.

[Bob M.]

Again a tsuba that Ford is very familiar with - 

[JohnTo]

Curran: Lovely tsuba, how could you bare to part with it?  I see your main monkey has a court cap and baton (gunbai?), whereas the other is holding a peach (missing on my tsuba).

Jean: the kanji for senbikizaru are千疋猿; sen is 1000, biki is the counter for animals and zaru is monkey (saru changes to zaru when used in a combination word).  Minogame 蓑亀 is a contraction of mino, meaning a straw raincoat and kame a turtle, i.e. a straw coated turtle, or one covered in trailing seaweed looking like a Japanese peasant’s raincoat.  Although minogame may live to 1000 or 10,000 years (in mythology) the name has no specific reference to the age.

Bob: Another lovely tsuba.  Your monkeys have much more variety and life than mine.  The three wise monkeys are distributed nicely around the top, adding to the interest, and you have the monkey holding a peach (and as it has a leaf attached I concede it is a peach and not a tama jewel).  But no neck wrestlers or baton holder.  I see yours is inscribed ‘sentoku kin wo mote kore wo tsukuru’, ‘made with sentoku’.  Would you like to comment on the sentoku/brass issue?  It looks like sentoku to me.

Thanks for all your comments and additional information regarding monkey tsuba.

Best wishes, John

[Curran]

Hi John-

   Frontside attached.

   I try to limit to 15 to 20 tsuba, and it was not in my 2 main regions of tsuba interest. Off to Bonhams it went.

   I do think I first offered it on NMB back then.

 

Back to the monkeys...