Resources for studying menuki?

[Tamagucci]

Hello again,

 

hopefully it's alright to be posting in such quick sucession. Im quite fascinated by menuki, and perhaps even moreso than tsuba's, but i'm sort of at a lost in terms of where to start studying. It is partly the reason why I approached collecting tsuba's first given there is so much more resources available. So my uqestion is: is there any books which would be good starting points? 

 

Here's a follow up uqestion. I'm very enamoured by this piece: https://www.ebay.com/itm/277346222077?_skw=menuki&itmmeta=01K5V9V6RRT34ZNCCCJH7XPSZ9&hash=item40931f7ffd:g:F1EAAeSwdfVogk1g , and may very well be a piece I save up for to get a few months down the line if it is still available. However, before that I'd like to know atleast some basic identification of Menuki. I was under the impression (from a forum post here) that menuki often have mei, this one doesn't. So how then does one go about autheticating and identifying? 

 

Cheers,

Kai. 

[Brian]

Menuki seldom have mei..the top class ones sometimes do, but I think we see fewer mei than on f/k and tsuba.
These are legit menuki, nothing too fancy and I wouldn't expect them to be signed. Price is fair. Not a bargain, but not terrible imho.

[Exclus1ve]

Hi! Brian said it quite accurately.
The mei can be in different places, sometimes even on a plate of pure gold inside.

 

However, as with other tosogu items, it all comes down to the quality of the craftsmanship. The more intricate the work, the more likely it is that it was created by a renowned master who may have included a mei. In most cases, mei signatures are not present, which is normal. This item is genuine. Menuki are less likely to be counterfeited, and you can easily identify them.

[Jack Zacao]

 

 

Hi Kai, a quick search would result in the following book: 

https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/book/fittings-books/b979-tosogu-no-bi-fine-Japanese-sword-fittings-menuki-i-ii-2-books/

 

it seems to be in english as well. others are mostly Japanese

 

Jack

[Tamagucci]

Hi Jack, 

 

Yes I did see those volumes, but it doesn't really give school/style or period information. I suppose generally that's not as common as tsuba, or it is but it is all in Japanese? 

[Charlie C]

Hi Kai,

 

As a menuki fan (I basically only collect menuki), I must say there aren't any well-written books solely on menuki. One primarily learns about menuki knowledge from books that describe the styles of different schools when they produce menuki, or in the catalogues of tosogus.

 

Mei is not as prevalent on menuki as it is on kozuka and tsuba, although some schools prefer to add mei more frequently than others on menuki. I suggest starting with looking for as many menukis as possible before buying to gain an expectation of what is well-made and what is not. Modern replica or antique mass-produced mould pieces are not uncommon, though most of them are easy to identify. The piece you attached doesn't seem modern to me.

 

I hope you enjoy your own menuki collecting or browsing journey!

 

C.C.

Edited September 24 by Charlie C

[Jake6500]

Hey Kai! I don't have too much to add that hasn't already been said by others. As has been shown, the most common place to find mei on menuki is probably on plates inserted into the back, followed by tiiiinnnyyy signatures on the sides. Mei in general on menuki are however relatively uncommon and even some high quality works might not feature signatures.

 

Viktor has provided some brilliant images of this (including an Ishiguro school pair with a signature on the side from a recent auction I remember observing and paying close attention to!!)

 

Your hesitancy is shared and the rarity of explicit materials about menuki (especially in English) are part of the reason that I myself have always strayed from purchasing menuki for my collection until literally this past week when I purchased my very first pair on auction.

 

I can confirm that the listing you have posted is reliable, not just based on the images of the item but also based on the seller. I have purchased a couple items from this exact seller in my first year of collecting, they are reliable and everything they sell is authentic. I don't buy from them anymore but this is simply because I have developed my eye for quality and have started to spend larger quantities of money on superior quality pieces. (Basically I'm an addict but there's no Tosogu Anonymous program )

 

As a general rule most of the knowledge you will obtain about styles and schools from other pieces like tsuba or fuchigashira are generally transferrable to menuki as well. If you know a school is known for particular stylistic choices or that a specific artist is known for certain types of designs, consider these factors when evaluating menuki purportedly from that artist or school. For example, something I learned only recently is that lions by the Goto school generally are identifiable by some specific design elements. Take these examples I found online as an example:

 

 

This is an image of a tsuba by Goto Mitsumasa. If you have a close look (you may need to zoom in) you will see that the lion on this tsuba has a belly that appears slightly distended in shape and that three ribs are noticeable on the lions side (in some examples this might be 5). 

 

Here are a pair of Goto lion menuki. Note these same design features:

 

 

It follows that even if these menuki are not signed, even if the seller said they had no idea which school these menuki were from, you could probably make the judgement that they are connected to either the main line or a branch of the wider Goto school lineage.

 

As you gather more knowledge about specific schools you'll be able to apply that knowledge to menuki, even if you acquired it from tsuba.

 

Edited September 25 by Jake6500

[Tamagucci]

Thank you, that was very informative! P.s. you must show us your first pair of menuki when you get it! 

[Tim Evans]

Have a look at this thread. 

 

Tom Buttweiler's articles had information about how to identify and date menuki based on construction method, however, his interest was mostly in pre-Edo menuki. The Bushido articles are in the Downloads section. the 1976 Taikai article may be harder to find, but goes through Kokinko, Mino and Goto jidai menuki in detail. 

 

There are specialist books available that discuss Goto and Mino small fittings. For Edo period kinko, there are books that discuss specific artists and schools but will have a mix of tsuba, fuchi-gashira, kozuka, and menuki. Check Grey Doffin's site for what is available. 

 

 

Edited September 25 by Tim Evans
Typo

[Jack Zacao]

I also like to browse menuki designs in museum collections online. the best site is MFA in boston. You can learn a lot by examining the high definition pictures and the artist name and schools. However, the museum collections usually focus on extrermely high quality and most of them are solid gold. it is beyond the reach of me. Does anyone know other good museum collections of menuki? other than MET, MFA boston ?

[Tamagucci]

6 hours ago, Jack Zacao said:

I also like to browse menuki designs in museum collections online. the best site is MFA in boston. You can learn a lot by examining the high definition pictures and the artist name and schools. However, the museum collections usually focus on extrermely high quality and most of them are solid gold. it is beyond the reach of me. Does anyone know other good museum collections of menuki? other than MET, MFA boston ?

 

Agreed! I also like studying the catalogues and archives of high end auction house as well (I have attached a catalogue with a good selection of menuki, althought the resolution is not great). Another good museum website is: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?page=1&page_size=15&q=menuki&utm_source=chatgpt.com, they have ~230 menuki on file.