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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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

  • Literature notes

    Lenticular; pierced with three young fern-fronds (warabide) in negative silhouette, accompanied on each face by fern-like foliage in tinted gold wire nunome; near the top left is a small undercut hole pierced through the guard and enclosing a tiny loose ball (compare certain Namban guards).

    Signed on the front with an illegible name, apparently with a kakihan, and on the back: ...Aizu no jū ("resident of Aidzu...") Katsumune [Japanese text] kore wo kizamu ("carved or chased this").

    Katsumune, an unrecorded artist, was possibly a Shōami of Aizu (see Group XII).
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūFukushima prefecture Aizu (place of creation)
    Date
    18th century (1701 - 1800)
    Artist/maker
    Katsumune (active 18th century) (carver)
    possibly Shōami School (active 1601 - 1909) (armourer)
    possibly Umetada School (active 16th century - 19th century) (armourer)
    Material and technique
    iron, with cut and filed openwork decoration, and gold wire nunome-zōgan decoration; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
    Dimensions
    7.5 x 7.1 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    formed carved,
    cut,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10235
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 235

Glossary (2)

nunome-zōgan, tsuba

  • nunome-zōgan

    Decorative application of metal sheeting (generally of gold or silver) where the iron ground is first cross-hatched and the metal burnished on.

  • 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)

    Lenticular; pierced with three young fern-fronds (warabide) in negative silhouette, accompanied on each face by fern-like foliage in tinted gold wire nunome; near the top left is a small undercut hole pierced through the guard and enclosing a tiny loose ball (compare certain Namban guards).

    Signed on the front with an illegible name, apparently with a kakihan, and on the back: ...Aizu no jū ("resident of Aidzu...") Katsumune [Japanese text] kore wo kizamu ("carved or chased this").

    Katsumune, an unrecorded artist, was possibly a Shōami of Aizu (see Group XII).
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