New Tsuba for Christmas...

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is a new Owari Sukashi tsuba I picked at a discount price for Christmas on the NMB's sales section. It is a small tsuba at 6.8 cm X 6.5 cm with a rim thickness of 0.45 cm. I think it is intended for a wakizashi. The iron and craftsmanship is very characteristic of the middle Edo Period Owari Sukashi school work. I am sill trying to figure out the designs on either side of the seppa-dai. Does anyone have any reasonable ideas? The designs above below the seppa-dai are wild geese (karigane 雁金) that are often rendered in twin pairs on ji-sukashi tsuba of many different schools. Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my question.

 

Here is a very similar tsuba that sold at Yamabushi Antiques recently: http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/TSUBA74.htm.

 

P.S. Updated the photos that are clearer then the original ones I taken of the tsuba.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

I updated the original post with new and better photos. Here is another Owari Sukashi tsuba I have with a similar motif with the wild geese (karigane 雁金) in twin pairs but the kozoku hitsu-ana is in the shape of Japanese ginger (myoga 茗荷). This I am dated about the same time period of the middle Edo Period but is sized to fit a katana at 7.8 ✕ 7.6 cm with a 0.45 cm thickness at the rim. The very wide seppa-dai seen in both tsuba is associated along with the thick ji-sukashi with Owari Sukashi as well as the Kanayama Schools. The rim has linear tekkotsu which might have been exaggerated by rust damage to the rim which has since been removed.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles