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

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

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Tsuba with chrysanthemoid florets and sword-blades

Glossary (2)

lacquer, tsuba

  • lacquer

    Chinese and Japanese lacquer is made from the sap of the lacquer tree, which is indigenous to Eastern China. It is applied to wood as a varnish or for decorative effect. In India and the Middle East, lacquer is made from the deposit of the lac insect.

  • 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)

    The front chrysanthemoid, with 16 sunk florets, each paved with aogai lacquer (comminuted pearl-shell); actually the intervals between the florets are ken blades with obtuse points, continuing across the sd.; a similar description applies to the back, except that both the lacquer and the chrysanthemum idea are absent, and there is an inner ring of [Figure] shapes linking blades together.

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