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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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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Double mokkō-shaped tsuba with zigzags and a Buddhist invocation

  • Literature notes

    Double mokkō (eight flat lobes); on each side of the seppadai a long lobed opening with a small oval one beyond it; the remaining surface (including the rounded edge) covered with fine brass inlay of wire in a similar design on each face, viz. at the top the Nichiren invocation (see no. 67 [EAX.10067]), at the bottom a large Chinese character [original character], raku ("pleasure") or gaku ("music"), and, in between, a diaper of parallel zigzags.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    1st half of the 18th century
    Material and technique
    iron, with cut and filed openwork decoration, and hira-zōgan (flat inlay) in brass wire
    Dimensions
    7.9 x 7.6 x 0.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    cut,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10146
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 146

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)

    Double mokkō (eight flat lobes); on each side of the seppadai a long lobed opening with a small oval one beyond it; the remaining surface (including the rounded edge) covered with fine brass inlay of wire in a similar design on each face, viz. at the top the Nichiren invocation (see no. 67 [EAX.10067]), at the bottom a large Chinese character [original character], raku ("pleasure") or gaku ("music"), and, in between, a diaper of parallel zigzags.
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