Nice video on tsuba from the NY Met - Adam Savage

[Brian]

Nice watch.
 

 

[Spartancrest]

    About 800 in these books!  

[MauroP]

Storing tsuba in Petri dishes, that'a a great idea!

[Spartancrest]

5 hours ago, MauroP said:

Storing tsuba in Petri dishes

A scientific way to "clone" more! 

[jesup]

Fun video.  That abalone tsuba is insane

 

[EdWolf]

Nice video. There's also an video about kabuto.

[Robert S]

On 12/17/2025 at 5:45 PM, jesup said:

Fun video.  That abalone tsuba is insane

 

Sure is!  I don't even want to think about the work, precision and focus that required.  With conventional metal inlay, you can tighten up the inlay by moving metal a little.  With abalone, no way.  It would just shatter.  With inlays in wood you can fill a little if necessary, but with abalone in metal, I think it would be obvious.  Every one of those pieces had to be accurate within significantly under a 10th of a mm, all by hand.  Insane is the right word!

[Matsunoki]

9 hours ago, Robert S said:

inlay, you can tighten up the inlay by moving metal a little.  With abalone, no way.  It would just shatter.  With inlays in wood you can fill a little if necessary, but with abalone in metal, I think it would be obvious.  Every one of those pieces had to be accurate within significantly under a 10th of a mm, all by hand.  Insane is the right word!

If this is the one you refer to the black background is lacquer. It is not inlay into metal. The technique is generally referred to as Ryukyu lacquer.

[Bugyotsuji]

Usually referred to as 七宝 Shippo in Japan, a word which covers the two concepts of a) that particular design or pattern, and/or b) cloisonné.

[kaze ryu]

 Wouldn't petri dishes condense and amplify if there were any residual moisture?

[Charlie C]

9 hours ago, Matsunoki said:

The technique is generally referred to as Ryukyu lacquer.

Not sure from what you deduced that this is 琉球 lacquer. The school famous for applying 螺鈿(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raden) on tsuba shall be the 杣田 school, which was employed by the 富山藩 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyama_Domain). I am actually not aware of any tosogu industry in 琉球 in the edo era, and it would be great if you could let me know your rationale. Thanks.

 

8 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Usually referred to as 七宝 Shippo in Japan, a word which covers the two concepts of a) that particular design or pattern, and b) cloisonné.

Just to add a wikipedia https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/七宝紋

 

[Brian]

Charlie, I think Colin is correct. The MOP isn't inlayed into the metal, the base is lacquer over the iron, and the MOP is put into that. Still maazing craftsmanship, but they are putting the designs on lacquer with a clear coating to smooth it out, and not cutting out the shapes in the metal and putting the MOP in.

[Matsunoki]

42 minutes ago, Charlie C said:

Not sure from what you deduced that this is 琉球 lacquer. T

I’ve owned several pieces including a tsuba and fuchi kashira and koro stand.

[Charlie C]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Charlie, I think Colin is correct. The MOP isn't inlayed into the metal, the base is lacquer over the iron, and the MOP is put into that. Still maazing craftsmanship, but they are putting the designs on lacquer with a clear coating to smooth it out, and not cutting out the shapes in the metal and putting the MOP in.

Brian,

 

I agree - I wasn't questioning that it was not lacquer, but it was not 琉球 lacquer. It was a common technique to use MOP on lacquer, but the only school I know that used it on tsuba is the 杣田 school, which wasn't based in 琉球.

 

Sorry for not being clear in my original reply. 琉球漆, or what Colin referred to as Ryukyu lacquer, specifically refers to the lacquerware made in the 琉球 area, the place today known as Okinawa. I have some personal interests in lacquer and failed to find the hallmarks to connect the tsuba shown in the video with 琉球漆, so I wonder if Colin would share his deduction.

Edited December 20, 2025 by Charlie C

[Charlie C]

28 minutes ago, Matsunoki said:

I’ve owned several pieces including a tsuba and fuchi kashira and koro stand.

You mean that your pieces were papered to be 琉球漆? I wonder if you mind sharing the kantei results as this is quite educational. I am still a newbie learning tosogu history and I just have not heard that there was a school applying this technique in 琉球. Many thanks. 

[Matsunoki]

It was not a school as far as I know…..not in the traditional sense. The technique was borrowed from the earlier Ryukyu pieces in the late Edo but also into Meiji. I used to restore such pieces for the bigger dealers including shibayama style tsuba and other works of art so I am very familiar with how they were made and how difficult they are to restore.

I live in the UK…we don’t have many kantei events here!

[Charlie C]

Colin,

 

I take full credibility of your experience and knowledge, but I stick to the opinion that this specific piece was more likely not 琉球漆器 as I failed to identify its hallmarks in the video. Attached is a similar tsuba made by the 杣田 school I mentioned. 

[Matsunoki]

You keep using kanji which many on here will not read, including me (unless I keep translating which simply isn’t necessary). 
So, are you saying this is shell directly inlaid into an iron or soft metal base?

[eternal_newbie]

琉球漆器 - Ryukyu lacquer

杣田 - Somada, a school that was particularly well-known for their mother-of-pearl inlay techniques on lacquerware

[lonely panet]

nice to watch but its clear that none are true students

[Matsunoki]

Thanks Rohan, but using unnecessary kanji on an English speaking website makes it difficult for many to follow the conversation and I suspect many will just move on….like I will in future. 

If @Charlie C reads what I said…..I never said the tsuba was Ryukyu lacquer, just that the technique is generally referred to as Ryukyu. It (the technique) originated in Okinawa back a few hundred years ago.  I was simply pointing out how it was made. 
Another feature is that sometimes the base of lacquered and inlaid tsuba is wood. This is because metal can expand and contract enough to crack lacquer and dislodge any inlay. 
They were usually never intended for combat usage but looked great strolling around town in times of peace.  Probably more popular with merchants than Samurai. 
See also shibayama tsuba. 
 

[Charlie C]

Maybe this technique is referred to as 'Ryukyu' in some villages in the UK, but not in the US or Japan. The technique shall be referred to as 螺鈿 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raden). The word 'Ryukyu' itself doesn't make any sense as a lacquer technique, at least in the lacquer world. 

 

If someone wants to maintain their linguistic purity on this Japanese-art-discussing forum, I am all for it. Ciao ciao, mon chéri!

[eternal_newbie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_lacquerware

 

It's more a style, prevalent in the Ryukyu islands, than a specific technique. The technique for inlaying itself is called raden (as Charlie pointed out) and the material, mother-of-pearl, is called aogai.

[Matsunoki]

8 minutes ago, Charlie C said:

Maybe this technique is referred to as 'Ryukyu' in some villages in the UK, but not in the US or Japan.

Have a peruse of these links….if the phrase is happily used by the worlds major auction houses then it’s good enough for me.

Anyway, my main objective was to point out that the tsuba in question was lacquer, not to have some stupid argument over semantics or to try and look smarter than the average bear. 

https://www.bonhams.com/search/?chronology=past&query=Ryukyu+lacquer

https://www.christies.com/en/search?entry=Ryukyu lacquer&page=1&sortby=relevance&tab=sold_lots

[jesup]

Regardless of all the discussion about what this should be called... even being mother-of-pearl in lacquer it's amazing.

[Charlie C]

1 hour ago, Matsunoki said:

Have a peruse of these links….if the phrase is happily used by the worlds major auction houses then it’s good enough for me.

Anyway, my main objective was to point out that the tsuba in question was lacquer, not to have some stupid argument over semantics or to try and look smarter than the average bear. 

https://www.bonhams.com/search/?chronology=past&query=Ryukyu+lacquer

https://www.christies.com/en/search?entry=Ryukyu lacquer&page=1&sortby=relevance&tab=sold_lots

Just for the information of this discussion, the links here refer to a 'Ryukyu style lacquer'. As good Rohan pointed out, there is a style of 'Ryukyu lacquer', which doesnot match the tsuba shown in the original video. My whole point was that the original tsuba was not Ryukyu-style lacquer, even though Matsunoki referred to it as such.

 

I thought this forum cares about truth and details of techniques being applied to togosus, so I pointed out in the original reply that I would humbly ask Matsunoki to show us his rationale for identifying the tsuba as Ryukyu style. Instead of answering my questions, he only accused me of 'trying to look smarter'. Hard to imagine that the words are from a man who claimed that tosogu collection is about understanding.

 

Anyway, I drop my case and apologise to anyone who feels hurt in the discussion. I have no intention of accusing anyone of being stupid, and I have never used such a dirty word in the discussion above. I sincerely recommend that dear Matsunoki handle the whole discussion with more dignity and professionalism, but maybe it's too late. 

 

Wish everyone a merry Christmas.

Edited December 21, 2025 by Charlie C

[Matsunoki]

26 minutes ago, Charlie C said:

the links here refer to a 'Ryukyu style lacquer'.

No, most of them refer to Ryukyu lacquer, not “style”

 

27 minutes ago, Charlie C said:

there is a style of 'Ryukyu lacquer', which doesnot match the tsuba shown

OK…compare the tsuba (shown first) to the other images of items described as Ryukyu lacquer. How on Earth can you say there is no match in style? The use of the small geometric inlays is a major characteristic of Ryukyu lacquer and I simply said ………

 

21 hours ago, Matsunoki said:

The technique was borrowed from the earlier Ryukyu pieces

[Matsunoki]

[Matsunoki]

[Matsunoki]

36 minutes ago, Charlie C said:

My whole point was that the original tsuba was not Ryukyu-style lacquer,

In the light of the images above do you still stand by that statement?