Tsuba - Fisherman

[Keith Jennings]

Dear Forum members,

 

This is the 5th tsuba out of eight I acquired recently, I have no clue as to the age, and for what it is worth, I can say it "feels" older than the others I posted. The height is 7.8 cm, width 7.4 cm, inner 5 mm, rim 5.5 mm.

 

Best regards,

Keith

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Keith,

 

A good, honest tsuba. My first instinct would be to suggest the Kanie group. The design and general treatment is very reminiscent of their work. I also agree with you that it appears a little older than mid Edo, perhaps quite early Edo period. The metal is a little too refined though so I also lean a bit towards it being a Nara piece made after the style of Kanie.

 

The relative thickness, and robust appearance, of the rim along with the "honesty" of the decoration further convinces me that it's quite close to the original Kanie productions. I think it's a nice piece.

 

regards,

 

Ford

[Keith Jennings]

Hi Ford,

 

Thanks for your opinion. Attributing tsuba to the proper school & time frame appears to be as difficult as dating Japanese porcelain, maybe even harder. I have a respectable library on Asian art, mostly ceramics, I need to acquire some books on tsuba. I just received the first of hopefully many books on the subject - 'Tsuba; An Aesthetic Study'.

 

Cheers,

Keith

[Ford Hallam]

You're welcome Keith. Often, I think, the best we can do is explore a range of likely possibilities. We'll always have to acknowledge that these are merely speculations based on personal perceptions.

 

I'd say that by comparison ceramics is fairly straight forward. Potters tended, afaik, to remain fairly faithful to their roots and regional traits. Metalwork studios seem to have been far more open to market place demands.

 

regards,

 

Ford