POST YOUR LION/SHISHI!

[Kurikata]

17 hours ago, Curran said:

There are no Goto ones so far.

Here it is......

Edited February 27 by Kurikata

[Hokke]

4 hours ago, Kurikata said:

Here it is......

 

 

That is a terrible replica......

 

Fortunately I have a service where I will take this off your hands and properly dispose of it........and I won't even charge you. You can trust me, I go to church.

 

Seriously though, wow......what a beautiful piece

 

 

 

Edited February 27 by Hokke

[DanielLee]

Yanagawa Naomasa

 

Edited February 28 by DanielLee

[Ian B3HR2UH]

This one is signed Yanagawa Naomasa but the mei doesn't match those in Kinko Meikan or Wakayama. Bonham's did sell a very similar pair in 2023 which had Tokubetsu Kicho papers and a Sato Kanzan attribution to Naomasa 

[Ed]

Not for sale. Thanks for the inquiries.

[Curran]

5 hours ago, Ed said:

 

I always admired these guys, with their well positioned gold dewdrops at the temple and cheeks.

The facial expression is rich. I would struggle to draw the faces that well, yet alone pull that off in metal.

[Ed]

 

This one is for sale, if interested.

 

[NotANinja]

Some rudimentary menuki but I love them!

[Ed]

 

Gotō School (後藤)
Kibei-Line (喜兵衛)
Kyoto and Kaga

 

Mitsunari, c.1719-1759 worked for the Kibei line of the Goto school. He became the 6th generation master or head of this branch. He was the son of Jōha (5th master).

 

Over the span of his career he signed his works as Mitsuaki (光昭), Mitsunari (光生), Mitsuyori (光寄), Magojūrō (孫十郎) and also a variant character for Nari “成” as seen on this kozuka, Mitsunari (光成).

[JohnTo]

The first shishi tsuba that I have is a Shakudo one signed Masanaga.  The tsuba depicts two shishi in shishiaibori and engraved in katakiri on the reverse with a windblown peony. 
Shishi are mythical guardian lions in both China and Japan and the peony is regarded as the king of flowers and in Japan symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune.  The design of shishi and peony is often augmented by the addition of a butterfly.  This is because, according to legend, the shish has a weakness in that a bug lives inside it, but if it sleeps under a peony the morning dew is absorbed by the shishi and the bug is eliminated as a larva, which metamorphoses into a butterfly.
 

The tsuba is signed Masanaga, with a kao and was catalogued as Haynes Index no. H 04250, which identifies the artist as Chosuke Masanaga (d. ca 1700), who was a student of Nara Toshinaga (Markus Sesko) or Ito Masatsugu (Haynes).  However, there were two generations of Masanaga in the Nara School and both used the same kanji for their signatures.  The first generation, Seiroku, was a student of Toshinaga (either the 3^rd generation master of the Nara School or a student of the same name).  His (adopted?) son was Gihachi Masachika, who signed Masanaga for a while after his father’s death and was from the Kawakatsu family and a nephew of Sugiura Joi.  The Nara tsuba artist Gohachi Masachika may have been an alternative name used by either of the other two Masanaga.    Consequently, there is some uncertainty as to the identity of the artist who made this tsuba.
 

Height: 7.6 cm. Width: 7.4 cm. Thickness (rim): 0.4 cm. Weight: 216 g

Provenance: Edward Wrangham Collection, Part I, 9 November 2010, Lot 37, bought from the Roland Hartman Collection of Japanese Metalwork (Christies, 30 June 1976, Lot 130)
 

The second shishi tsuba is a large copper one made in the 20^th century by Yanagawa Morihira (1899-1971) and was made as a work of art, rather than as a practical object to be mounted on a sword.  The shape of the tsuba may be best described as sumi-iri-kakagata (lit: notched in square). The front (omote) of the tsuba shows both a shishi and peonies, whereas the reverse (ura) only shows the shishi.  Interestingly, the shishi on the omote has a silver body and a golden mane and tail, whereas the combination of silver and gold is reversed on the ura. 
The faces on both animals are copper. Shishi are often represented as playful creatures, but these two are muscular with a fearsome pose and the silver shishi has a head which looks rather like Hannya, the Japanese female demon.  The engraved peonies on the omote are coloured with silver and gold gilding and the petals are in a darker shade of silver.  The outlines are defined in katakiribori (half cut carving) and kebori (hair carving) and, particularly the silver, darkened to add extra tonality to the design.  The nakago ana has four 32(?)-petalled chrysanthemum punch marks on each side, purely for decoration and the tsuba is signed on the lower right face of the ura Morihira (守平).  There is also a single kozuka hitsu ana, filled with a gilt cat scratched plug.
 

Shishi are mythical guardian lions in both China and Japan and it is also the name given to a group of political activists (Ishin Shishi 維新志士) in the late Edo period who opposed the westernisation of Japan.  The peony is regarded as the king of flowers and in Japan symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune.  I think that it is likely that this tsuba was made in the 1930’s when Japanese militarism was at its peak.  I expect that the intention of the artist was to represent the shishi as fearsome creatures prepared to protect Japan in its time of conflict.  However, in my view, the artist failed in this respect and they appear rather camp.  I purchased this tsuba in memory of my nephew, who died young (52) at about the same time this came up for sale.  He was a rather over the top extrovert character and I thought it would be a suitable memorial for him.

Height: 8.75 cm. Width: 8.4 cm. Thickness (rim): 0.7 cm; Nakago: 0.4 cm. Weight: 254 g

Provenance: Bonhams (Lot 48, 13 May 2021).
 

Best wishes, John