Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Tsuba with plants, animals, and figures

Glossary (2)

sentoku, tsuba

  • sentoku

    A kind of brass made from an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin.

  • tsuba

    Japanese sword guard.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The A.H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba) by Albert James Koop

    The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)

    Oblong, the sides slightly out-curved, the angles truncated; the front decorated with three panels: - at the top, one of folding-fan-mount shape, sunk, enclosing in iroye incrustation a couple of performers (warriors) in a bugaku dance; below are a panel of kidney shape engraved with lespedeza by a stream and encrusted with two quail (probably a stamping), and one of rounded oblong form in iroye incrustation representing various buildings by a mountain lake. At the back, in bold katakiri engraving, with gold or silver inlay, are a tall pottery vase of peonies and a jui sceptre formed as a sacred fungus, also a bat in gold relief. Signed: Tōto no [Japanese text] jū ("resident of Yedo or Tōkiō") Hirochika [Japanese text] with kakihan [Japanese text]. (Unrecorded.)

    This guard and the next [EAX.10956] come periously near to being classed with the flamboyant type of export guard made during the '70s and '80s of last century to please a supposed Western taste.

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