Heianjo or Higo Jingo?

[Jorgensen]

[Grevedk]

Good evening Jimi-san,

 

FWIW my guess would be Higo-Jingo as first call. Form of Hitsu-Ana, patina of plate material (iron), and the heavy inlay of brass on one side. But - just an uneducated opinion  @Spartancrest might have one in his archives and a more real confirmation 👍

 

All the best

 

Soren

[DirkO]

It's a mixed bag. Some things were inspired by Higo and Heianjo, but that's as far as I'd go on this one. You see hira zogan, suemon zogan,... The workmanship, quality of chinchu,... seem to point to late 19th century. From a design perspective, this is a very crowded and busy design, far from Higo mainline. There's no resting points, no negative spaces. An interesting exercise in different styles.

 

[Curran]

Definitely not Shimizu-Jingo.

 

[Spartancrest]

5 hours ago, Grevedk said:

might have one in his archives

These two examples are from the Cleveland Museum of Art  numbers 1919.279 and 1919.537 

The museum had no information on either of them, I put them down as Heianjo, muromachi or momoyama period as best guess?

Jimi-san's piece is much more interesting, very envious! 

[1kinko]

Shoreline erosion prevention efforts with woven bags to hold stones? 

[Spartancrest]

1 hour ago, 1kinko said:

Shoreline erosion prevention efforts with woven bags to hold stones? 

Darrel spot on! Two circular raised openwork basket-dykes (Jakago  蛇籠 ) with the water swirling round them. We would call them Gabions in English [though the word originates from the French]

 

A modern take on a practical object this site has Jakago as art objects - works for me, they are beautiful! - http://onlinecollection.asianart.org/view/objects/asitem/Objects@17806/4?t:state:flow=c9404b2c-68d4-416d-a850-4941fc5a0c3e

[Spartancrest]

There is a single example in the Ashmolean Museum from the A.H.Church collection  EAX.10115.a

The museum has put it in the category of Early incrustation (Taka-zōgan) http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/7/10237/10343

The guard is described thus:

"On each face simple low-relief modelling representing rocks and hillocks, those in base outlined in brass incrustation (largely missing); also in raised brass are two circular openwork basket-dykes (jakago) and the water swirling round them at the base of a cascade; further, in minute inlay of brass and copper wire, are to be seen various flowering plants and grasses; the brass incrustation also includes the branches of leafless trees; "wire" edge.

This guard belongs to a rare and extremely interesting group of which every important collection appears to have a single example or (like the Victoria and Albert Museum) at most two or three."

 

I can see why my searches have largely come up with very little - very uncommon and early type of guard.

[Jorgensen]

Thank you really much for your effort and time to find this awesome information @Spartancrest

 

This is very interesting! Its great to have this insight about the school, motif and other info, as honestly, I had no clue about it. Also, I did not know that this Tsuba was so special and rare. Awesome knowledge and very educational. 

 

I really appreciate it. A big thank you 🙏

[Spartancrest]

2 minutes ago, Jorgensen said:

Tsuba was so special and rare.

Victoria & Albert museum has a very similar one to the first post: M.190-1923   https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O467294/tsuba/

Ura view only. I will keep looking, there is likely one more in the V&A but as it has over 3,300 with images it might take me some time!

[Chishiki]

 

There may be some connection to this thread.  Mark

 

[Spartancrest]

10 hours ago, Chishiki said:

There may be some connection to this thread.  Mark

Great link there! Doubles the images of the style. Funny how an early style of inlay can easily be confused with amateur workmanship- I contend the skill could not and did not develope overnight , it always, always takes practice or precedent. Those people who see instant perfection are dreaming!

[Jorgensen]

Great link and great comments to this thread in general. Its been very interesting.

 

@Spartancrest You are right about its funny how it easily is being confused with amateur workmanship. However I actually thinks the baskets is quite skillfully made. Especially thinking of the early time it was being made considered they must have limited tools and knowledge compared to ex. 1800 cth. That is my perspective.

Thanks again for the very valuable info you have provided me. Im most thankful 🙏

[rkg]

Great piece - I guess if nothing else it -could- be binned as Heianjou zougan, but.... it's a step above what you normally see from the groups that produced pieces attributed to Heianjou zougan - I guess some kind of special order from them is a possibility though.  I think it's also too old to be somebody like the Washida boys that often created high-quality over-the-top pieces in the heianjou/youshiro style.  I am no Jingo expert, but, while a goofy hitsu sometimes points you in the higo group's direction, the hitsu looks either added or like it was modified later to that shape maybe, and... some of the types of inlay are atypical for them, and I feel the design is a little too much for them - I always think of them using simpler/visually more powerful subject matter - and, their iron was often "yummy", which this kind of isn't.

 

Another possibility is some early shouami group.  You sometimes make pieces that have several different types of inlay like this piece - Haynes would always joke that they did it to show off their skills - here's a ko-shouami I have that I think fits this - not as complex as your piece, but the mashup of nunome, iroe, inlay, figural work, etc,  isn't typical for the Ko shouami guys, so its interesting/might be relevant here:

 

 

Clear as mud, right?

 

Thanks for sharing the piece.

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

 

 

 

[GRC]

I found another example of this smith/school's work.

Very similar to the one Dale posted from the Victoria & Albert museum.

[Spartancrest]

Lost one side of the basket - all the stones have washed away.   Bound to happen over such a long strech of time.

Great find Glen.

[Spartancrest]

I found a maru version very like that in the Ashmolean museum and the similar ones in the 2010 link.

This is from the Klefisch Auktionen archive - [about eight hundred tsuba into the collection, or one third the way through!] no details are given.

 

[GRC]

Nice find @Spartancrest

 

I've been looking at these for a while now and I would argue that these are exactly the "type of tsuba" that warrant getting an entirely new name and identification because the existing classification system has no valid place to put them.

They are clearly different in style, aesthetic, and execution from all the existing artificial "school" names that we have to choose from.

 

The "crudeness" appears to be intentional to me, in contrast to the quality of the inlays that would require a a decent level of skill and proficiency to execute. It's almost like a few individuals branched off from a late Onin or early Heianjo workshop and went off to explore this more "wild" aesthetic.

I lean towards later Onin workers because their inlays were often more erratic in layout than the more "regular" layouts we see in Heianjo tsuba. 

These are almost an exploration of an early "Brutalist movement", several hundred years before the one we saw in 1950s modernism... it typically had chunky forms, with a loose organic geometry that reminds me of these tsuba. 

 

[lonely panet]

Its horrific to look at

[Spartancrest]

What about this one? https://www.jauce.com/auction/m1186469424

  It has the Jakago but conventional otherwise. Is it a "prequel" to the others or is it an attempt to "rein-in" the decadent after the fact?

Why can't these things have date stamps! 

 

[GRC]

Lol Dale,

I was literally going to post the same tsuba with the exact same comment... it's either the prequel or the end of the production line before things got much more restrained in the Edo period.

[GRC]

9 hours ago, lonely panet said:

Its horrific to look at

even the ugliest baby has a mother who thinks it is beautiful... well most of the time anyway 

[lonely panet]

s**t, 2 ugly tsuba.  

 

A cruel world we live in 

[ROKUJURO]

Did Salvador Dalí make TSUBA at all? These would fit in his style.

[Curran]

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

Did Salvador Dalí make TSUBA at all? These would fit in his style.

 

That is an insult to Salvador Dali.  

I wasn't the biggest fan of his paintings until I got to study them up close at the Prado in Spain during a General Strike. 

With the Museum Staff at half, they pretty much just left us alone to get within 6 inches of many of his paintings.

 

The guy was total OCD.  Up close, his paintings are masterful almost pointalistic brush strokes.

No idea what his inspiration for designs might have been (never read up on his life), but the better works all had an incredible attention to detail.

 

These tsuba:   not so much.   

Kinda feel like what we would call "coconut doll artwork"