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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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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Aori-shaped tsuba with tea ceremony cauldron and poem

Glossary (2)

shibuichi, tsuba

  • shibuichi

    alloy of copper and silver, patinated to a dull grey-green colour

  • 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)

    Aori; hammered-up edge; on the front, in low relief occupying most of the field is a cast-iron cauldron (for the Tea Ceremony) etched with a pattern of susuki grass; its flat knobbed lid is in shibuichi, its lifting-rings in gold; the ground surrounding it is rough stone-grain silver; on the back, in raised characters is a haikai (three-line poem), also a few dots of gold and the gold-encrusted name of the writer, Shumpo (as [EAX.11052]); specially made tang-hole plugs, partly gilt. Signed at the back: Riūsō Hōgen [Japanese text] with kakihan [Figure]. (The founder of the school.)

    The poem reads:

    Sumi kuzu ni Mixed with broken charcoal
    Iyashi karazaru They do not look vulgar;
    Ko no ha kana Yet they are but humble leaves of a tree.

    I.e. fallen leaves, vulgar as they look on the ground, no longer seem so when mixed with charcoal and so promoted for use in the Tea Ceremony.
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