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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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

Publications online: 1264 objects

Lenticular tsuba with chrysanthemum flowers and leavesfront

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Lenticular tsuba with chrysanthemum flowers and leaves

  • Literature notes

    Slightly lenticular; two chrysanthemum flowers in negative silhouette piercing, and a leaf in sunk flat relief on each face (identical design, reversed, in the same relative position); each leaf is touched with gold nunome in three places.

    A guard in similar style, signed by the same artist and dated for 1834, is quoted by Hara as being in the Zuckerkandl Collection, Gleiwitz.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    possibly 1834
    Material and technique
    iron, with ito-sukashi decoration (‘thread-piercing’ openwork), and gold nunome-zōgan decoration
    Dimensions
    7.5 x 7.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › metal › iron,
    processed material › metal › gold
    Technique index
    forged,
    decorated › openwork,
    cut,
    covered › inlaid
    Object type index
    arms/armour › koshirae › kodogu › tsuba
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10600

  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 600

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

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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)

    Slightly lenticular; two chrysanthemum flowers in negative silhouette piercing, and a leaf in sunk flat relief on each face (identical design, reversed, in the same relative position); each leaf is touched with gold nunome in three places.

    A guard in similar style, signed by the same artist and dated for 1834, is quoted by Hara as being in the Zuckerkandl Collection, Gleiwitz.
Notice

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