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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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

  • Literature notes

    Each face modelled in low relief to represent a close-set hedge of upright bamboo stems, with numerous leaves tipped with gold nunome, three stems are broken at the top before they reach the narrow raised border and three fine saw-cuts mark the gaps between some of the others.

    This may be an Itō guard (compare no.523 [EAX.10523], of the same design).
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    17th - 19th century (1601 - 1900)
    Material and technique
    iron, with gold nunome-zōgan decoration
    Dimensions
    7 x 6.7 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10404
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 404

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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