Researching an unusual sukashi tsuba

[Lorenzo]

I'll tease you a bit so be patient :D

 

I have in my hands a tsuba of a friend of mine, as I will be back in Japan in two weeks and I want to take it for a shinsa.

 

The craftsmanship is very tidy, looks a quite late work. No sign of steel features such as lamination or tekkotsu, but the patina looks very good and appropriate, a lovely dark chocolate colour difficult to reproduce with a scanner, at least mine.. Shakudo liners on the hitsu. Design seems to me a wheel and a family mon.

 

Here it is, omote in colour:

 

 

 

As I said in the title, this tsuba has something very unusual, at least to me. Something I have never seen before, but I am going to tease you a bit a hint is on all the pictures BTW, good eyes will see it.

Let's see if some of you knows this design/school at first sight before. It's signed, in omote, masa.. something　正..恒 but I am not sure of the second kanji, I need to catch a good shot to show you. It's signed in katakiribori.

 

Here are a coulpe of "bookesque" BW pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Diameter 78 mm.

 

Lorenzo

[christianmalterre]

Dear Lorenzo,

 

could you add some picture(s) of the Mimi?(side view)

Seems pierced on the Wall?/or is this just shadow?

Nice!

 

Christian

[Lorenzo]

Dear Christian,

 

I'll post a picture of the mimi in few hours, no digital camera available here :?

 

Lorenzo

[Martin]

Hi Lorenzo,

 

I also see round piercings in the Mimi in regular distance.

And I guess that´s why you currently can´t find your cam to post some pics of the Mimi...

 

Cheers,

[Lorenzo]

Told you I wanted to tease you :D

 

Anyway with you my friends is too hard, so yes, you are correct.

The strange thing of this tsuba is that it is very thick at 8 mm, and pierced all around. I had no time to go out my office so here are some pictures taken with my iphone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This tsuba was acquired by my friend years ago in a street market in Japan, from an antique dealer not specialized in swords, so he had no clue of what it was and bought it only for the appeal.

 

I think it's lovely, I like this tsuba very much as it is quite unique in its own. I have no doubt there could be many others same as this, but statistically speaking it's rare as I have no other examples on all my books.

 

What school/inspiration you think it could be?

[Lorenzo]

Martin, that cut out you posted taken away the red circles makes a good banner for a website

[Nobody]

My guess: A spinning wheel and a crane

 

Refer to the following old tale.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Ga ... /turu.html

[Lorenzo]

Moriyama san, that makes a lot of sense. I think your intuition is spot on.

 

Thank you,

Lorenzo

[christianmalterre]

Hello Lorenzo,

 

thank you for those additional pictures of course!

Ha-this is quite funny!

To be very honest-i never saw such ever till yet-this is quite very interesting indeed!

A pierced Mimi like this is very strange-(i would agree if that would be a Namban-Lol! :lol: )but here???

What is the exact measurement of that Tsuba?

 

Christian

[Lorenzo]

Thank you Christian.

 

The measurement are diameter 78 mm (perfect circle) and thickness is 8 mm. It isn't very heavy as it is "quite sukashi-ed"

 

Seppa-dai measures 43x28 mm, and can host a nakago 28 mm wide and 8 mm thick.

[christianmalterre]

Uuups!

This little massive Lady does really make me wonder!

(Sorry-i definitely have no idea here actually about an school attribution)

Christian

[Martin]

Lorenzo,

this is intersting indeed and I haven´t yet seen such Sukashi work either.

In my opiniont this could be a late Edo piece with an "experimental" Sukashi design... :D

 

Thanks for sharing this one.

 

Best,

[Jamie]

Very nice, thanks for sharing with us.

Interesting work!!

[ububob]

Very interesting piece. If it is your intent to make your own I hope you are successful.

[Lorenzo]

ehehehe never say never

 

For the moment is intended to be mounted on my friend's sword koshirae, but for the future.. who knows

[Lorenzo]

Forgot to add the result of the attribution;

 

 

Edo Makki Masatsune