Tsuba made by a drunk?

[Tan-C]

Hello everyone,

I just picked up my first tsuba, fell in love with this one being sold by Grey Doffin. In his description, he noted the completely amateurish artwork on it, which I find quite charming. It looks like the signature reads (正仲国) or Masa Nakakuni.

 

Any theories on what the story for this one could be? I am new to this whole hobby so feel free to over-explain if you have something to say. 

[Jesta]

Welcome to the forum.

 

I am not sure that it has to have a story (although others may chime in). It looks like a whimsical collection of common themes: Wave across the bottom, a gourd, a cup, and a pine tree(?). They are all represented across schools, and time in various ways. 

 

Given the execution of the tsuba it could well be an early apprentice piece, something that he was learning on, and the various items are practice in carving techniques. 

[eternal_newbie]

1 hour ago, Jesta said:

Given the execution of the tsuba it could well be an early apprentice piece, something that he was learning on, and the various items are practice in carving techniques. 

 

Apprenticeships often started very early in life, this could very well be the equivalent of baby's first drawing that gets stuck on the family fridge.

[Curran]

14 hours ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

Apprenticeships often started very early in life, this could very well be the equivalent of baby's first drawing that gets stuck on the family fridge.

 

Rohan isn't far from the truth.

I've seen early work by the nidai Kanshiro, and I own one of the 4 signed Hayashi Tohachi [NBTHK Hozon] in existence. 

The Hayashi Tohachi is from his teenage years and got some goofy crudeness to it from before he mastered his trade. In one or two spots, it has certain traits that I associate with his father. I assume Dad was trying to help?

Edited Friday at 04:05 PM by Curran

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

5 minutes ago, Curran said:

 

Rohan isn't far from the truth.

I've seen early work by the nidai Kanshiro, and I own one of the 4 signed Hayashi Tohachi [NBTHK Hozon] in existence. 

The Hayashi Tohachi is from his teenage years and got some goofy crudeness to it from before he mastered his trade. In one or two spots, it has certain traits that I associate with his father. I assume Dad was trying to help?

Pics?

[Curran]

Of the Hayashi Tohachi?

[Curran]

It is signed with his teenager name, before he became the 3rd gen of the school.

Not bad for a teenager.

Still, not at the level he'd reach in only a few year.

 

Not sure if I have any other pics.

Above and below the hitsu ana here, see the slight carving into the tsuba near the sakura and the tomoe.  Only the nidai Shigemitsu really did that on a consistent basis, so it is considered a kantei point.

Here you have a dad double checking junior's work, like my own dad spell checking my middle school projects. Spellcheck didn't quite exist yet.

[eternal_newbie]

Personally, I agree with @Tan-C - I find it charming in a way, especially given how polished and skillful signed works (or any works that make it out of the workshop, really) usually are. In some ways, just as important and rare as a masterwork from the artist's prime years.

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

Sweet tsuba @Curran, thanks for sharing!

[Tan-C]

3 hours ago, eternal_newbie said:

Personally, I agree with @Tan-C - I find it charming in a way, especially given how polished and skillful signed works (or any works that make it out of the workshop, really) usually are. In some ways, just as important and rare as a masterwork from the artist's prime years.

Absolutely! Think of all the "practice pieces" (if that is what this is), that have never been passed down through history. I imagine they get recycled or discarded mostly. This one feels special because like all great art, I can really see the human who made it, when looking at this piece.

 

Here is another look at the signature, for those curious. I had some Japanese speaking friends take a look at it and try to decipher that last character, to me it's looking more and more like 佂 or 任

 

Not sure if those are common characters to have in names or signatures of the time though, so it's guesswork at this point.

[ROKUJURO]

I would look into possible SHOAMI signatures as artist names usually have only 2 KANJI.

[Katsujinken]

Slightly apropos of nothing, I am aware of an amazing Juyo dragon tsuba by Nagatsune that actually says in the mei, “carved leisurely after getting drunk”!

[Curran]

Hey.....

Otsuki Mitsuoki was quite the grandmaster known to have liked his sake and worked during his enjoyment of sake.

 

His carving style certainly has a sure -why the f**k not-  madness about it whereby I think I could recognize his work by the mad drunk genius carving style.

Given that he was a popular target of gimei signatures, anything I see with his supposed signature- I look to the workmanship for the mad drunk style before bothering to check the signature.

I doubt I could imitate it if I didn't have half a bottle of sake in me. There is a certain looseness to it that you'd have to be very very relaxed to pull off.

 

Of course, I might not recognize the work from one of his more sober AA periods.

 

[Spartancrest]

From Sea to Sea : Letters of Travel

 

by Rudyard Kipling

 

Publication date 1900

 

 

Talk to every one you meet, if they show the least disposition to talk to you, and you will gather, as I have done, a host of stories that will be of use to you hereafter. Unfortunately, they are not all fit for publication. When I tore myself away from the distractions of the outer world, and was just sitting down to write seriously on the Future of Japan, there entered a fascinating man, with heaps of money, who had collected Indian and Japanese curios all his life, and was now come to this country to get some old books which his collection lacked. Can you imagine a more pleasant life than his wanderings over the earth, with untold special knowledge to back each signature of his cheque-book ?

In five minutes he had carried me far away from the clattering, fidgety folk around, to a quiet world where men meditated for three weeks over a bronze, and scoured all Japan for a sword-guard designed by a great artist and — were horribly cheated in the end. 

'Who is the best artist in Japan now ' I asked. 

'He died in Tokio, last Friday, poor fellow, and there is no one to take his place. His name was K.., and as a general rule he could never be persuaded to work unless he was drunk. He did his best pictures when he was drunk.' 

'Ému. Artists are never drunk.' 

'Quite right. I'll show you a sword-guard that he designed. All the best artists out here do a lot of designing. K... used to fritter away his time on designs for old friends. Had he stuck to pictures he could have made twice as much. But he never turned out pot-boilers. When you go to Tokio, make it your business to get two little books of his called Drunken Sketches — pictures that he did when he was — ému. There is enough dash and go in them to fill half a dozen studios. An English artist studied under him for some time. But K...'s touch was not communicable, though he might have taught his pupil something about technique. Have you ever come across one of K...'s crows ? You could tell it anywhere. He could put all the wicked thoughts that ever came into the mind of a crow — and a crow is first cousin to the Devil — on a piece of paper six inches square, with a brush of Indian ink and two turns of his wrist. Look at the sword-guard I spoke of. How is that for feeling ?' 

On a circular piece of iron four inches in diameter and pierced by the pole for the tang of the blade, poor K..., who died last Friday, had sketched the figure of a coolie trying to fold up a cloth which was bellying to a merry breeze — not a cold wind, but a sportive summer gust. The coolie was enjoying the performance, and so was the cloth. It would all be folded up in another minute and the coolie would go on his way with a grin. 

This thing had K... conceived, and the faithful workman executed, with the lightest touches of the graver, to the end that it might lie in a collector's cabinet in London. 

'Wah ! wah !' I said, and returned it reverently. 'It would kill a man who could do that to 

live after his touch had gone. Well for him he died — but I wish I had seen him.'

 

The "K" is likely Kawanabe Kyosai [Kyosai Suiga] who composed "Drunken Sketches" and designed several tsuba  

[Bugyotsuji]

分福茶釜　bunbuku chagama

a propos of nothing, apart from Dale's story above! 

Oh, and I had a cider or two with lunch...

[Hokke]

Im curious if there is something lost in translation when using the word "drunk". Understanding how poison acts on the nervous system, I can't help but imagine what *I* think of as drunk, is not a condition favorable to artistic dexterity, particularly when any level of precision is required. Is it possible that "drunk" is simply being used as a verb and not an adjective, i.e. "drinking" = "drunk"? 

Edited yesterday at 02:49 PM by Hokke

[Hector]

Didn't Kiyomaro used to be 'three sheets to the wind' practically all the time?

 

His stuff still turned out ..... kind of ok.

 

Hector

[Alex A]

Get the impression that someone that once chiselled mei got bored one afternoon and became artistic.

[Spartancrest]

10 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

分福茶釜　bunbuku chagama

Piers, I love that guard - right up my [distorted] alley!