tsuba Signed garō-zu tsuba: Seeking information on maker

[tosogu_eu]

I recently received results from the NBTHK shinsa but it lef me puzzled.  So I would like to ask the community for any information on the maker and school of one of the pieces, which came back Tokubetsu Hozon.

 

The piece:

Iron mokko-gata tsuba with a starving wolf (餓狼図, garō-zu) in sukidashi takabori. Kin-zōgan for the eye and claws, shirogane-zōgan and lead(?) Ategane. Tsuchime-ji ground, uchikaehi mimi. The composition reads as a two-sided landscape, the wolf inhabiting the terrain implied by the omote.

 

Signature:

Two columns beside the nakago-ana on the ura:

Right column: 駿高双山麓寓

Left column: 岩佐正 (花押)

I read this as: "Residing at the foot of the twin mountains in Suruga

Iwasa Masa [kao]."  Or is there another reading?

 

The 駿 abbreviating 駿河国 (Suruga province, present-day Shizuoka). The 双山麓 as a geographic locator, can only be Fuji-san or do know other twin mountains?

 

What I am trying to establish:

The Iwasa school in metalwork does not appear in the principal English-language references I have access to, and I have not found 岩佐正 in auction records or published catalogues. I would be grateful for any of the following:

 

Has anyone encountered signed work by 岩佐正, or other Iwasa-signed tosogu? Any Haynes Index entries for Iwasa metalworkers would be particularly useful.

 

Thanks everyone.

Cheers, Alex 

[Deez77]

Excerpts from a Gen AI research response (not verified or validated):

 

"The mountain 双子山 (Futagoyama / Sōzan) is a real, named twin-peak feature on the slopes of Mt. Fuji itself, in Suruga province, on the Gotenba route at about 1,800–1,929 m elevation. It consists of two peaks (上塚 Kamizuka / Upper Mound at 1,929 m, and 下塚 Shimozuka / Lower Mound). It is also called 二ツ塚 (Futatsuzuka).

 

This is exactly what 駿高双山 ("Suruga's High Twin Mountain") refers to — the twin peaks high on Mt. Fuji's eastern flank in Suruga province. The signature is saying: "Residing at the foot of the High Futagoyama in Suruga" — meaning the artist lived in the Gotenba / Subashiri region at the eastern foot of Mt. Fuji.

This is a wonderfully specific and poetic location claim. The Gotenba / Subashiri area was in Suruga province and was part of the Odawara domain's territory at various points, and the foot of Mt. Fuji had a culture of mountain ascetics, literati, and craftsmen drawn by the sacred geography.

 

The signature 駿高双山麓寓 — "residing at the foot of the high Futagoyama in Suruga" — points to the Gotenba / Subashiri area at the eastern foot of Mt. Fuji, on the Suruga side. The character 寓 (gū, "temporary lodging") implies the artist considered himself a sojourner there rather than a hereditary native — perhaps a ronin, retired samurai, or literati-craftsman who relocated to this scenic, semi-rural area.

Name: 岩佐正 + kaō. With the kaō immediately following, the given name is a single character 正. The most likely readings are Iwasa Tadashi or Iwasa Masa(shi). Single-character art names with kaō were a common late-Edo / Bakumatsu literati affectation, modeled on Chinese-style scholar-artist signatures.

 

The honest reality: This artist does not appear in the major standard references (Haynes, Wakayama, Sesko's Genealogies). The NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper attests that this is a genuine and important work, but the artist is what specialists call a "rare master" or unrecorded smith — a skilled independent craftsman whose oeuvre is too small or too localized to have entered the major published indexes. The high quality of the work (Tokubetsu Hozon for an unrecorded maker is uncommon) suggests he was a serious artist, possibly:

 

A samurai-amateur from the Odawara, Numazu, or another local domain, working in metal as a refined avocation

 

A late student of one of the Nara-school descendants (Hamano, Yokoya, Yanagawa lineages) who left Edo to retire to the Mt. Fuji foothills

 

A Bakumatsu literati craftsman who consciously cultivated obscurity as part of a wabi/recluse aesthetic — the elaborate poetic residence inscription is consistent with this"

 

I'm not sure if this helps, or how accurate it is, but it sounds plausible and may provide some direction for additional research. 

 

Damon

[tosogu_eu]

No one with any idea?

[ROKUJURO]

Wolves have different tails and ears, as far as I know. In my opinion, this might be depicting a dog in bad condition.

[Spartancrest]

There is a history of half starved animals in Japanese art - I guess a rice diet doesn't agree with them? 

            For goodness sake feed the poor things!    

[eternal_newbie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okuri-inu

 

Also known as okuri ōkami.

[Bugyotsuji]

The paperwork describes it as 餓狼 'Garo' or 'starving wolf'.

Garo, or 飢えているオオカミ Ueteiru Okami, is said to be a symbol of danger and fighting ferocity, as a Bushi ideal.

[eternal_newbie]

41 minutes ago, Bugyotsuji said:

The paperwork describes it as 餓狼 'Garo' or 'starving wolf'.

Garo, or 飢えているオオカミ Ueteiru Okami, is said to be a symbol of danger and fighting ferocity, as a Bushi ideal.

 

As it turns out, a tsuba with a similar motif was discussed on the forum previously:

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

8 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

The paperwork describes it as 餓狼 'Garo' or 'starving wolf'.

Garo, or 飢えているオオカミ Ueteiru Okami, is said to be a symbol of danger and fighting ferocity, as a Bushi ideal.

Yes, thank you Piers.

If I consider how a lion is depicted in Japanese art, this may well be a wolf!

[Curran]

@eternal_newbie   thank you for the adds on this one.  I was unfamiliar with them as a yokai. 送り犬