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Tsuba with plants, animals, and figures
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- c. 1870
- Material and technique
- obverse: sentoku, with iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration, and engraved decoration reverse: sentoku, with katakiri engraving (oblique chisel-cuts), and inlaid with gold and possibly silver
- Dimensions
- 8.8 x 8.1 x 0.3 cm (height x width x depth)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › alloy › sentoku,processed material › metal › gold,
- Technique index
- Object type index
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arms/armour › koshirae › kodogu › tsuba
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
- Accession no.
- EAX.10955
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Further reading
Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 955
Glossary (2)
sentoku, tsuba
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sentoku
A kind of brass made from an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin.
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tsuba
Japanese sword guard.
Location
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- 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
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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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