When I don't know, I guess "Shoami"!

[Kurikata]

Hi NMB Tosogu fans,

 

I really don't know which school made this tsuba. When I don't know, I say Shoami (please look at the hitsu ana size) ?

 

Even the design is unclear . Is it a flower, feathers ?

 

All views are warmly welcome.

 

Bruno

[Matsunoki]

My money is on “fluffy” feathers. On some of them you can see the “vein” that runs centrally through a feather. Can’t think of a flower that shape/form. Could argue leaves but again the radiating “feathering” is not leaflike.

[Spartancrest]

My vote is for leaves. The basic design looks like it goes back to Heianjo style, just the same as the first example. The others all show variations of leaves - usually Ginkgo. Just to make it difficult leaves and feathers have a central rib.   You might notice the top middle image has five holes in the leaves - same number as yours. [is this just a coincidence or a copied design?]

 

 

 

[Matsunoki]

………but the “jagging” along the edges of whatever they are is very typical of how feathers are depicted! They are also a totally different shape to those in Dale’s post. Hmmmmm……

[Matsunoki]

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26734/lot/661/

[b.hennick]

My first thought was that it is an owl. Owls are quite rare in Japanese fittings.

[GRC]

Bruno, that tsuba was originally described as "arching feathers" when sold by an auction house in France  

I happened to stumble across it by accident this morning while looking for something else.

 

My vote is feathers as well, although the feathers are arranged in such a way as to give the same "look" as the ginko leaves in the tsuba that Dale posted.

So maybe it's an intentional "double visual". Maybe someone was trying to combine their family's feather mon with a ginko leaf motif?

 

Those leaf shapes Dale posted typically represent ginko leaves, which have diverging, almost parallel veins, that can branch in two along their paths. It's called a "dichotomizing vein pattern":

But, they are typically done as simple diverging lines when done as inlays on tsuba (likely for simplicity).

 

Whereas the tsuba Bruno posted has what is called a "pinnately parallel" pattern... which is found in leaves of many plant species, but also bird feathers   

[Spartancrest]

Changed my mind - Feathers,- hey but it is not just me! Good old Google is a bit confused as well. 

 

 

Well we can discount Onagadori (Japanese: 尾長鶏, "long-tailed chicken")