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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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 a scroll and the god Kwanu's spear

  • Literature notes

    Modelled in openwork as the dragon spear of Kwanu (Kuan Yü, the Chinese war-god), together with a partly unrolled scroll of manuscript (treatise on war), both coiled about the seppadai; the eyes of the dragon head are gilt in nunome, its teeth are in silver; the roller-tip of the scroll is in gold.

    This signature is not uncommon; compare the two next [EAX.10715 and EAX.10716]. Wada mentions a Sunagawa Masatora, not a Nishikawa Masatora. Hara gives only the Nishikawa Masatora of Yedo mentioned by the Sōken Kishō as still living in 1781. The two names may belong to the same man.

    Compare, for the subject, No.1127 [EAX.101127].
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    1st half of the 19th century
    Material and technique
    iron, with cut and filed openwork decoration, gold nunome-zōgan decoration, and with gold and silver
    Dimensions
    7.3 x 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.10714
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 714

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)

    Modelled in openwork as the dragon spear of Kwanu (Kuan Yü, the Chinese war-god), together with a partly unrolled scroll of manuscript (treatise on war), both coiled about the seppadai; the eyes of the dragon head are gilt in nunome, its teeth are in silver; the roller-tip of the scroll is in gold.

    This signature is not uncommon; compare the two next [EAX.10715 and EAX.10716]. Wada mentions a Sunagawa Masatora, not a Nishikawa Masatora. Hara gives only the Nishikawa Masatora of Yedo mentioned by the Sōken Kishō as still living in 1781. The two names may belong to the same man.

    Compare, for the subject, No.1127 [EAX.101127].
Notice

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