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

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

An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.

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

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Tsuba with maples leaves and brass rim

  • Literature notes

    Thick; etched in faint relief with a few maple leaves on each face; brass rim in the three parts, i.e. two broad flanges and the actual almost flat outer rim; the latter is lightly punched with a wavy pattern of circles and dots; the convex flanges, each pierced with a zigzag row of holes and further lightly punched with circles, are inwardly cusped with four trifolate projections alternately with four smaller semicircular ones, and these cusps are similarly punched with circles of various sizes, some concentrically.

    Behrens Collection, no.1081. This minute description applies almost eactly to (1) a guard of the same size, formerly in the Hawkshaw Collection (no.45, pl.IV) and later in that of H. L. Joly, showing bamboos instead of maple leaves, and (2) one formerly in the Poncetton Collection (Cat. no.226, pl.XIV), of diam. 2.95", with the iron plain and the flanges uncusped. This latter M. Poncetton attributed to the Jingo School of Higo (Group XIII) and described the flanges as recalling the tentacles of cuttlefish.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    16th - 17th century (1501 - 1700)
    Material and technique
    iron, etched, and taka-zōgan (high relief inlay) in brass; brass inlay punched; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
    Dimensions
    7.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10125
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 125

Glossary

tsuba

  • tsuba

    Japanese sword guard.

Location

    • currently in research collection

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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)

    Thick; etched in faint relief with a few maple leaves on each face; brass rim in the three parts, i.e. two broad flanges and the actual almost flat outer rim; the latter is lightly punched with a wavy pattern of circles and dots; the convex flanges, each pierced with a zigzag row of holes and further lightly punched with circles, are inwardly cusped with four trifolate projections alternately with four smaller semicircular ones, and these cusps are similarly punched with circles of various sizes, some concentrically.

    Behrens Collection, no.1081. This minute description applies almost eactly to (1) a guard of the same size, formerly in the Hawkshaw Collection (no.45, pl.IV) and later in that of H. L. Joly, showing bamboos instead of maple leaves, and (2) one formerly in the Poncetton Collection (Cat. no.226, pl.XIV), of diam. 2.95", with the iron plain and the flanges uncusped. This latter M. Poncetton attributed to the Jingo School of Higo (Group XIII) and described the flanges as recalling the tentacles of cuttlefish.
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