Jump to content

Ichijo School tsuba?


kyushukairu

Recommended Posts

I recently acquired this lovely little (65 x 50mm) sentoku tsuba with sekkamon (snowflakes) and tsuchime (hammered pattern), the latter of which are indicative of Goto Ichijo. 
I have checked against shoshin Ichijo tsuba and have been able to find the same sekkamon on such examples, so there's a good possibility that this particular tsuba was produced by the Ichiko school. Interested to hear other's thoughts

 

IMG_0797.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few observations I'd like to offer...

 

Firstly, unless it's signed, and speaking here about Edo period work,  it cannot be regarded as of a school. This is because 'schools' operated as guilds or effectively a franchise arrangement, or Iemoto system, you paid your dues, for instruction, in time in the studio training and working for the master.  And then in subs once you were considered suitably skilled enough to carry the name of the school forward independently. 

 

Secondly I am  suspicious of those snowflakes. The arrangement seems, to my eyes, dull and predictable so I doubt an Edo period date. If you imagine the design as a flower arrangement then this is the equivalent of 5 flowers in a neat row.🤣

 

As for the stamps, well in a way I've been expecting them.  I've carved a couple of similar stamps for various restoration projects in the past so have some experience of the practicalities of making and using them. These however, strike me (pun unavoidable) as being machine made. I suspect we may see more soon.

 

Oh, and it's brass, or shinchu not sentoku. Sentoku is a very different alloy, quite brittle and very unsuitable for stamping work.

 

It's a lovely patina colour, the cleanness of the recesses of the stampings would concern me though.

 

And finally, looking at the kogai hitsu, the edges are nicely and gently rounded out. An acceptable finishing touch and one we do see on period work. What we don't see it that chamfering continuing around where the opening touches or runs through the seppa-dai. This reveals to me that whoever shaped the kogai hitsu wasn't familiar with mounting tosogu in a koshirae because it doesn't make sense when mounted.. 

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Ford for this very instructive explanation.

I have such tsuba I considered as an "Ichijo school" and made with suaka & sentoku.

So based on your reply, I must review my opinion as a tsuba from "Ichijo follower" tsubako instead of "school" and made with brass and not sentoku.

However, for the other face, is it copper or suaka ?

 

May I ask you what's your opinion on my tsuba ? :thanks:

IMG_6763.JPG

IMG_6764.JPG

IMG_6765.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sebastien

 

I'm happy to hear my post was useful to you.

 

Working backwards ;-)

 

Suaka is simply the Japanese word for copper. Just as shinchu is brass. Your's is copper/suaka, or aka-gane, red metal. All the same.

 

And I'd agree, not Ichijo 'school' but clearly copying their popular style. 

 

The maple leaves and blossoms are done rather expressively I think, not really trying too hard to be Ichijo, and more it's own thing. The ground is also more expressive/powerful. I think it's a perfectly honest piece, not extremely refined but a pretty decent example of its type.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks for your comments and clarification on suaka/aka-gane/copper wording :)

I Don't think too it is ichijo. I look at several Ichijo tsuba with this kind of stamps, and hitsu ana are longer, the tsuka shape and the ishime are a little different.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ford, instead of ‘school’ a more appropriate term might be ‘den’ (伝), which we see on kanteisho when a mumei piece is attributed to a particular tradition. To be more precise, I would suggest this is 'Den Ichijo' (伝一乗). With regards to your claim about being unable to attribute a tsuba to a school unless it is signed, do you have a reference to support that?
 

I don’t see how the ‘dull and predictable’ arrangement of the sekkamon prevents it from being an Edo period piece. It may prevent it from being an Ichijo piece, as one would expect more artistic merit from a master, but that was never on the table. Hence my suggestion of it being in the Ichijo tradition, and the inference that it was made by a student of that school.
 

As for the stamps - as illustrated below, and as previously mentioned - the sekkamon on my tsuba are identical to those used on shoshin Ichijo tsuba. This also supports my suggestion of ‘den Ichijo’. I don't imagine someone outside of the school would have had access to the same stamps used by Ichijo.
 

It’s likely a case of not having the tsuba in hand, though there is no doubt in my mind that this is an Edo era piece. Firstly, it bears an impression around the seppadai from where a seppa/ fuchi has been tightly pressed against it for a period of time. There is also some variation in the patina where the seppa would have been, which is lighter than the surrounding surface.
 

I’m sure you discuss all of these features in your forthcoming book though...


Dale, thank you for your kind words. I also find the treatment of the base metal rather pleasing, and which I feel gives off a wabi-sabi feel.

 

goto ichijo.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Sebastien - do you think the hitsu on the left was cut in later or enlarged? It eats into the Mon. Which side is the omote/ura?

image.thumb.png.20f1b121b2f1df7d4e41f07b813ff20b.png

Hello

In my opinion it is not the initial hitsu ana shape. It must have been enlarged later probably to fit a koshirae.

 

Kyle, yours also show stamps cuts at hitsu ana. So maybe a later addition?!

If you check carefully the stamps, some are similar designs but show differences in the details. Hence IMHO not the same stamp tool use on ichijo's tsuba and yours.

If you have doubts/convictions, you can still send it to a shinsa to see if panels considers it as ichijo, den or another call.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sebastian, you may very well be right about the hitsu ana being a later addition. As for the stamps, I'm still convinced they were made from the same die. 
I've thrown together another image with the shoshin examples in abstract and beside the corresponding stamps on my tsuba. The size of each abstracted stamp isn't perfect and some are at an angle, but you can clearly see the same details. You're quite right about shinsa, and I intend to submit it next year, so we'll have a definite answer then

 

ichijo.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Kyle,

 

I'm not really convinced by this use, by the NBTHK et al, of 'den' to denote some sort of affiliation. It seems disingenuous and meaningless, perhaps only useful as a marketing tool? I can admit it's usefulness in the context of bladesmithing though.

 

My discomfort with the design is down to the utter lack of imagination it reveals. Edo period crafts-people operated in a world where the principles of elegant design and aesthetics were the very air they breathed. Everything from kimono to wrapping papers bore the images of brilliant composition. And design books for craft production abounded. Weak design awareness would be a business failing and in a society remarkably attuned to refined artistic expression, the whole point of buying a tsuba after all...., a singularly dull offering like this would simply not be feasible.

 

The snowflakes are too large for the available space, they look cramped and stuffed onto the plate...they lack any suggestion of rhythm and delicacy. Snowflakes scatter, they drift, they are random...they do not line up like sardines in a tin can 🙂.

As a supposed product of the late Edo period it fails to communicate to me anything of the authentic aesthetic milieu of that time and place.

 

I'm impressed by your diligence in compiling those examples of similar snowflakes. Using modern technology scanning those and then using that precise data would allow for very accurate dies to be created. We use a processes like that in the Jewellery trade quite routinely today.

 

And Kyle, I'm really not trying to convince anyone of anything. My comments are merely my own musings and are offered to any interested reader for consideration. That is, to my mind anyway, the whole purpose of this forum after all.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kyle. 

I have found another 'stamped' guard of a similar nature in the Cooper Hewitt collection, [a frustrating Museum that has only images and no descriptions].

https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18342315/ This one appears to be made of solid gold. You may be able to contact them for any information, there is certainly little online. You will note the elongated hitsu, longer but similar to your example.

image.thumb.png.c75719444b9e542d72c3231011b91596.png

  • 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...