Tsuba from the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum (2026)

[Jesta]

I went to the Samurai Exhibition at the British Museum yesterday. It was pretty well laid out, with the focus really seeming to be on armour, with some discussion of the weapons used, and the role of the samurai in the Edo period. 

There was one display with tsuba, so I thought I would share them (two more in the following post). As usual, there was almost no description of the tsuba provided, so if anyone could include comments, origins, etc, then it would be great.  

The tsuba are really quite nice, with a good variety of themes, some seen before, and others that are less common. I really like the bee tsuba, it reminds me of Klimt. 

[Jesta]

The final two:

...

[Geraint]

Dear Justin.

 

Nice to see what is on display, thank you.  The collection is searchable here,https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=tsuba&object=tsuba&view=grid&sort=object_name__asc&page=1#page-top

 

As with most collections items vary from carefully sought out and purchased by the museum to augment the collection and somewhat random assortments from donations. The labelling is frustrating as it usually states, 'Tsuba, 19th century, made in Japan' unless the tsuba is signed in which case the name is given.  However there are still a lot of nice things to look at.

 

All the best.

[ROKUJURO]

2 hours ago, Jesta said:

I......I really like the bee tsuba, it reminds me of Klimt.....

I can understand that.

The question is, how much Klimt was influenced (like the impressionists) by Japanese art.

[Jesta]

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

I can understand that.

The question is, how much Klimt was influenced (like the impressionists) by Japanese art.

I think that it’s highly likely that Klimt was influenced by Japanese art. 

[Spartancrest]

Map tsuba :   from Bonhams sale https://www.bonhams.com/auction/20790/lot/578/an-iron-tsuba-umetada-school-19th-century/

 

  one from the Liebermann Collection.  They all look like Umetada school. The British museum one is a map of the world as known then, unusual with the wide border forming a frame. 

 

Snake is shiremono - very common

 Met Museum     from the Stibbert in Firenze       pinterest  

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Justyn,

I did not find much in Klimt's biography, except a mention that he might have been influenced by works of OGATA KORIN.

[MassiveMoonHeh]

Justyn, thank you for sharing... some really interesting pieces to look at. That world Tsuba is obviously their centre piece for this exhibition. Nice to see it.

[Deez77]

Thank you for sharing, Justin. 

 

Did you take any wide angle pictures of the display room at all? If so, could you please post one or two pictures? I'm quite interested in seeing how they set up the tsuba display area. 

 

Did I miss the bee themed piece, or maybe you're referring to the cicada (insect on the tree)?

[Jesta]

1 hour ago, Deez77 said:

Thank you for sharing, Justin. 

 

Did you take any wide angle pictures of the display room at all? If so, could you please post one or two pictures? I'm quite interested in seeing how they set up the tsuba display area. 

 

Did I miss the bee themed piece, or maybe you're referring to the cicada (insect on the tree)?

I am afraid that I didn’t take any wide angle shots. The tsuba display was a single case, with some other koshirae and a note about how decorative things became as swords were seen more and more as status symbols. 

 

I was referring to the cicada… I could have sworn it was a bee on a honeycomb, but you are right, and I can see it now that I look again. 

[Spartancrest]

[SteveM]

[Jesta]

21 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Snake is shiremono - very common

 Met Museum   

 

 

Yeah, I see these around quite a lot. What I also find interesting is how few of them appear to have been mounted at any time. I wonder how many were made for the export market (those that aren’t modern anyway)