Post Your Favourite Bird Tosogu!

[Jake6500]

Hey fellow Tosogu fanatics!

 

I've been away from the board for a little while due to work taking up much of my attention recently but that doesn't mean I've stopped collecting these past few months!

I have a couple new acquisitions I have been waiting to share with the board so this post is well overdue!

 

As the title suggests, two of my latest acquisitions include birds in the mise-en-scene!

Hoping for any knowledge the board might have about the artists Toryusai Kiyohisa or Marukawa Hiroyoshi (Mito school).

 

Also, post your favourite birds from your own collections!

 

 

[Spartancrest]

Marukawa Hiroyoshi was a student of Uchikoshi Hirotoshi (fl. 1810), and he worked at Mito in Hitachi Province. There are dated examples of his work for the years 1841 and 1842.

 

Something simple from my collection  - Two Roosters on one side become only one rooster on the other. 

[cluckdaddy76]

Animal and plant tosogu are my favorite themes. I will pick a couple of my favorites and share, starting with this iron base tsuba featuring a rooster, chicks, and bamboo.

 

Jason

[cluckdaddy76]

I believe this is a Nara piece, my favorite part of this one is the t moon in the clouds.

[cluckdaddy76]

[MauroP]

1 hour ago, cluckdaddy76 said:

I believe this is a Nara piece,

Actually the signature looks like 奈良重光 - Nara Shigemitsu, but I was unable to find this signature in my books.

[cluckdaddy76]

Let’s add a kozuka to the mix.

[cluckdaddy76]

[cluckdaddy76]

And since we do not have any menuki yet, I will add one last pic.

[Jake6500]

13 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Marukawa Hiroyoshi was a student of Uchikoshi Hirotoshi (fl. 1810), and he worked at Mito in Hitachi Province. There are dated examples of his work for the years 1841 and 1842.

 

Something simple from my collection  - Two Roosters on one side become only one rooster on the other. 

 

Thanks for the info Dale.

 

The Hiroyoshi tsuba turned out to be even nicer than I expected when I saw it in hand! You can't easily see it from the pictures but the base metal has a nice strong hue and it's a lot lighter in colour than I had expected. The flower and the bird both have a bit of gold in them but they are two different shades (presumably two different levels of purity) which make them noticeably different!

 

As for the Toryusai fuchigashira, I couldn't quite figure out whether it's authentic or gimei when I went through different reference materials but either way, the quality is there!

 

Lots of chickens so far, but surprisingly no cranes in the thread yet!

[Jake6500]

2 hours ago, cluckdaddy76 said:

Let’s add a kozuka to the mix.

 

I really like the simplicity of this kozuka Jason! Sometimes some high quality carving is all you actually need!

[Jesta]

One that I fell in love with early on:

 

This one is a bit more whimsical:

[Rich Thomas]

Couple of my favs

 

[Kurikata]

My birds....

[Spartancrest]

  For Bruno    

[EdWolf]

Only one item to share.

[Brian]

Kozuka in the Ishiguro style...

 

 

 

[BrentC]

Crane over waves.

[Steve Waszak]

Hard to pick an absolute favorite, but this is on the short list -- a low-crossbar Yamakichibei work from late-Momoyama.  

[FlorianB]

One of my favourites - an all time classic:

[Bugyotsuji]

Ed Wolf, ‘sparrows and bamboo’ seem to be a recurring theme of the Date clan.

 

Here is one of my personal favourites, with the watery marsh or river theme in shibuichi on the reverse, and five silver and gold egrets on a shakudo obverse.

Kaga-zōgan inlay technique.

 

 

 

 

 

[EdWolf]

1 hour ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Ed Wolf, ‘sparrows and bamboo’ seem to be a recurring theme of the Date clan.

@BugyotsujiThank you for sharing, Piers! I was not aware of this.

Regards, Ed 

[Matsunoki]

Couple more kinko pieces

[Exclus1ve]

It's not my, but it's a worthy example of "live" work.

[ROKUJURO]

My lady's TSUBA - second is a copy, not "THE" original.
 

[Grevedk]

Bird (cockerel or maybe a Ho-Ho bird) in full flight. Big and heavy Tsuba with a rather slim Nakago-ana. Beautiful in hand.

 

/ Soeren
 

[buchtas]

Here is my Cuckoo tsuba, I absolutely love the scenery and the bird with cresent moon on top is just a cherry on top.

[Bryce]

G'day Jake,

I have a set with very similar theme to yours.

Cheers,

Bryce

 

[Spartancrest]

I had to get the microscope out to find these four birds - I don't have many with birds other than a Myochin "sparrow" which are kind of dull and boring to look at. [JMHO] https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/40135-flock-of-birds-in-june/

 

[Matsunoki]

Couple of kinko kozuka. The duck on the boat is Goto.