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Tsuba depicting the Chinese poet Li Po
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Artist/maker
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Shōami Shigetsune (active 19th century) (armourer)Shōami School (active 1601 - 1909) (armourer)Akita-Shōami (possibly active 1601 - 1909) (armourer)
- Material and technique
- sentoku, carved in flat relief, with punched ishime surface, engraved decoration, and inlaid with gold
- Dimensions
- 7.8 x 7.3 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › alloy › sentoku,
- 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.10271
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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. 271
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 with rounded angles; blunt "wire" edge; design modelled in delicate flat relief and engraving of the Chinese poet Li Po (Rihaku) standing on a rocky flat in admiration of a waterfall; above him is a pine-branch, the trunk of the tree being seen at the back with a rockwall rising above the water; Li's collar and various other details such as spray-drops are given in gold incrustation; irregular ishime ground (broken-headed punch), covering the seppadai, which on the front is outlined by a vague shallow groove.
Signed: Akita no jū Shōami Shigetsune [Japanese text].
The signature overruns the seppadai, but is not to be doubted; otherwise one would be tempted to describe this as a Nara guard (Toshinaga style, Group XXXVIII).
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