tsuba no 5

[raaay]

Tsuba that has an iron body with copper [ mimi ] rim in the form off

rope design round the outer edge with black shakudo finish.

 

tsuba dia, 70 x 66 x 3 to 4 mm thick

 

1. school , ?

 

2. date , ?

 

any opinions please .

 

regards

ray.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ray, I have a Tosho marugata tsuba with a plain shakudo mimi signed Jumyo that has similar plate from around the early Edo period. John

[Curran]

Nice tsuba!

 

Tosho, I think. More photos would help. But I would hazzard a guess of Momoyama or early Edo? The mimi and (now plugged) kozuka ana were added (and plugged) later.

 

Good old iron piece.

[Rich T]

in size also is a possibility. The rim or mimi is not actually the appropriate in this case. It is called a Fukurin, and is an outer rim placed over the mimi. It is finished in Shakado as is/was the hitsu ume. The rope patter when on a mimi is referred to as a Nawa mimi, so this may be a Nawa fukurin.

 

So it is most likely the tsuba was larger and reduced in size, and then the fukurin was added, why this was done, maybe damage, or a favourite tsuba placed on a shorter sword, or perhaps they liked the fukurin and reduced the tsuba to maintain the size. Who knows. What we do know is they were reduced and it was quite common.

 

The school is a bit hard, it could be Tosho, Myochin or Umetada and maybe early Edo. It is really too hard to tell from a photo.

 

Cheers

 

Richard

[raaay]

thank's

 

John , Curran , Rich T

 

for you posts, and for the info posted on this tsuba .

 

sorry no more photos at the moment having problems with my camera.

 

Rich T,

you mention the size !! is their standard set of hard and fast dimensions for tsuba ? ie" Katana / Wakasashi / Tanto etc ,

 

[ like there is for sword lenghts ]

 

I think i read somewhere ? that a lot off the early iron tsuba generaly were a lot smaller than what appeared in latter periods ?

the reason i mention this is that this tsuba actually came on a shin gunto

with civillian mounts and the blade is 30" long and by normal standards

looks to small in proportion to the Tsuka and the sword .

 

thanks

 

ray

[Rich T]

"Size Doesn't Matter" though I think it might have compared to a samurai's height, weight, disposition etc. There were no hard and fast sizes for swords, there still aren't. There are guidelines for each type to fit into, but they were all different sizes. The same applies to tsuba. Tsuba for Katana are bigger that tsuba for wakizashi and they are bigger than tsuba for tanto.

 

The idea that the older guards are generally smaller is generally incorrect. Many many old Tosho and Katchushi tsuba are 8 - 9cm's in diameter. As time went on, and they moved toward the Edo period, they got smaller, and thicker.

 

Soft metal tsuba were smaller generally than iron but this is of course not always the case. I have seen Tachi-shi and Tachi-kanagushi tsuba that were pretty large also, in the 9cm range.

 

Your tsuba may have been in the family for many years and the soldier that went to war with that sword may have taken the tsuba with him as it has family history. This sort of thing happened a lot. With both swords and fittings.

 

Cheers

 

Richard