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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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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Lobed tsuba in the form of a rice bale with two rats

  • Literature notes

    20-lobed, modelled as the circular end of a rice-bale, of woven straw, with two marauding rats in brass and silver; there are two sawcuts and in two places loose straws and a knotted tying-cord are rendered by iron wire. Signed: Bushū no jū ("resident of Musashi province", i.e. of Yedo) Nara Masayoshi [Japanese text]. (Not the Nara Masayoshi quoted by Hara, he having worked only at fuchi-kashira (hilt-ends) with views of Mii-dera monastery, whence his nickname of Miidera.)

    The Victoria and Albert Museum has another copy of this design, which was evidently a favourite one.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    possibly 17th century (1601 - 1700)
    Material and technique
    iron, with ito-sukashi decoration (‘thread-piercing’ openwork), and iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration, in iron wire, brass, and silver
    Dimensions
    6.9 x 6.7 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    cut,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10920
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 920

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)

    20-lobed, modelled as the circular end of a rice-bale, of woven straw, with two marauding rats in brass and silver; there are two sawcuts and in two places loose straws and a knotted tying-cord are rendered by iron wire. Signed: Bushū no jū ("resident of Musashi province", i.e. of Yedo) Nara Masayoshi [Japanese text]. (Not the Nara Masayoshi quoted by Hara, he having worked only at fuchi-kashira (hilt-ends) with views of Mii-dera monastery, whence his nickname of Miidera.)

    The Victoria and Albert Museum has another copy of this design, which was evidently a favourite one.
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