Tsuba information

[nulldevice]

This tsuba came with a koshirae for a recent nihonto arrival. Iron base and it has some nice relief carvings on it of a chrysanthemum and leaves. For the gilding, it looks like some of the flowers might be copper or some other alloy? Maybe a later fix, oxidation, or some other phenomenon? 

 

Any thoughts on school, or period would be appreciated as I'm a complete novice with tosogu. 

 

I can get more pictures or measurements if needed as well. 

 

 

Thanks!

[Gunome]

Hello,

 

It must be an Awa Shoami tsuba from the Edo period

 

 

[nulldevice]

Thanks so much @Gunome!

[FlorianB]

On 2/22/2026 at 7:44 PM, nulldevice said:

For the gilding, it looks like some of the flowers might be copper or some other alloy?

Those "flowers" are pines.

Not sure about, but the base metal for the ornaments is copper which was gilded and the gold wears off.

[Bugyotsuji]

Nice unusual tsuba.

[Geraint]

Just to add a little to Florian's suggestion, copper is indeed used as a base coat, or more commonly as an  inlay which can then be gilded.   This tsuba is in nunome zogan which, as a physical process does not require that step.  The gold is applied directly to the base metal even when this is iron.  The details may still be copper or indeed another alloy.  

 

Whatever the technique it is a lovely thing.

 

All the best.

[nulldevice]

Thanks again to everyone for the information! I feel this may warrant pulling out the DSLR to take some higher resolution photos. 
 

I watched Ford’s video on nunome zogan and again I’m blown away at the level of patience and detail to create patterns such as this. So with nunome zogan being a physical inlaying technique, is it likely that the gold and copper pine boughs were originally that way with copper and gold wire? 
 

As you can see there is a little bit of corrosion and wear on the ground as evident in the relief carving areas and the seppa dai with some small areas of red rust in the nooks and crannies. The dry Utah air should prevent any further corrosion hopefully.