undecorated TSUBA?

[ROKUJURO]

Gentlemen,

how would a very humble 'decoration' like this be called on a TSUBA?  'HAN UDENUKI' ? A star?

[Bugyotsuji]

The top one might be kata-or tan- udenuki no Ana, 片 or 短腕抜きの穴 perhaps, but the lower tsuba to me is more like sun/moon or tentai 天体　透sukashi.

 

I would be interested to hear other possibilities!

 

(Nice finds!)

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you Piers!

The upper one is an atypical TEIMEI TSUBA, the lower one is a WAKIZASHI-size TÔSHÔ type/age TSUBA.

[MauroP]

I'd say 水玉透鐔 - mizutama sukashi tsuba.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you Mauro!

Is that water drops?

[Soshin]

I have a published and NBTHK paper undecorated tsuba in my collection. @ROKUJURO Jean C., would it be helpful for me to share my photos of it and the NBTHK paper? I like iron and the age of this tsuba and it came from the collection of one of my Japanese art sword teachers and artist who have passed away.    

[ROKUJURO]

7 hours ago, Soshin said:

I......Jean C., would it be helpful for me to share my photos.....    

David,

I don't know if it would be helpful for you, but I would like to see them.

[Soshin]

Since you might find this helpful, I will share. Attached is a NBTHK Hozon paper of the undecorated tsuba. The paper states: "素文図鐔 (somon no zu tsuba)". The tsuba is plain and lacks any design or decorative pattern. 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you David,

the images are not so good, but it is a nice KACHUSHI TSUBA with DOTE MIMI as decoration! I like it as well!

[Soshin]

On 4/13/2025 at 4:46 AM, ROKUJURO said:

Thank you David,

the images are not so good, but it is a nice KACHUSHI TSUBA with DOTE MIMI as decoration! I like it as well!

 

I was in a bit of a hurry last Friday and didn't have time to resize some better images in Photoshop for upload to NMB. All these things take time, and I was busy doing three or four things at one time on Friday evening. Here are some better photos that I hope you like and find helpful for your study. The iron of the separate applied rim and plate of this tsuba itself feels genuinely nice in hand. Something that cannot be captured in photos very well. The plate (ji 地) of the tsuba has a fine hammered texture (tsuchime-ji 槌目地) and retains some of the original black lacquer (kurourushi 黒漆) that was applied to the surface after the tsuba was made.

 

The first photos of the raised rim nicely and the surface of the tsuba nicely. 

 

 

The second photos show the tsuba in a custom box with a nice but unsigned hakogaki.

  

  

Edited April 15 by Soshin
Added additional information from my write-up about the tsuba.

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you David!

[GRC]

@MauroP... the first tsuba you posted has a really lazy description in the NBTHK papers.

 

The first one is definitely a gourd, not "water droplets/水玉 (mizutama)".

That rigidly geometric version of the gourd motif was used a lot in the late Muromachi and early Azuchi-Momoyama period... then it got more curvy and organic looking.

 

The second one, has the classic vertical yasuri line "rain motif" on the plate, so I assume the NBTHK just went with the easy way out by calling the two holes "water droplets"... which is certainly plausible.

But, I would also lean toward a sun & moon description due to the unequal sizes of the holes.

But, it's also equally likely, that it was just a clever tsubako who was playing around with all of those references at the same time by purposefully making one hole larger than the other, while having the rain motif background.

But complexity and nuance is not something we can expect to see in NBTHK papers...

[ROKUJURO]

Another example with a design closer to Mauro's gourd TSUBA:

[MauroP]

4 hours ago, GRC said:

The first one is definitely a gourd, not "water droplets/水玉 (mizutama)".

Actually the NBTHK paper correctly report 瓢水玉透 - hisago mizutama sukashi (gourd AND water droplet openwork).

 

[GRC]

 nice.

I missed the gourd kanji on the papers... my fault. My sincere apologies go to the NBTHK on this one 

 

but here's a later more curvy gourd shape that this early one evolved into:

[Bugyotsuji]

Re the kanji for gourd, 瓢箪 is hyotan, but 瓢 on its own can be read 'hisago' 'fukube' or 'hyo'. There are other kanji too, indicating wide usage with regional interpretations.

 

In conversation however, hyo could have other meanings, so to clarify the meaning, you will often hear hyotan or hisago, or to particularly indicate the dried container just fukube.

Great for carrying water or other liquids, hung by strings from the shoulder or waist.

 

Hideyoshi famously adopted the hyotan as his symbol, so you see often see such maedate and umajirushi. I have also had several Netsuke in the shape of hyotan.

[Michael 101]

I have a very similar simple design Higo Toyama tsuba in my collection its signed Toyama Minamoto Yoritsugu saku. The design has been kept very simple, just the single enlarged kozuka hitsu and udenuki ana with a yakite finish giving the surface a delicate unevenness and dull gloss. Its maru gata shape and spartan atmosphere described as enzo “zen circle” and to me it exemplifies Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic. 
 

kind regards

Michael