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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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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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Mokkō-shaped tsuba with flowering plum tree

  • Literature notes

    Mokkō; on each face, in low relief, a different design of a much contorted trunk of plum, following the outline of the guard and having large single blossoms; gold dots for anthers and pistil-heads; nunome gold edging to flowers and remains of this on the buds and some of the spiky twigs; the roughnesses on the trunk are got chiefly by groups of graver burrs hammered flat.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    19th century (1801 - 1900)
    Material and technique
    iron, with cut and filed openwork decoration, gold nunome-zōgan decoration, and with gold
    Dimensions
    8.1 x 7.6 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.10621
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 621

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)

    Mokkō; on each face, in low relief, a different design of a much contorted trunk of plum, following the outline of the guard and having large single blossoms; gold dots for anthers and pistil-heads; nunome gold edging to flowers and remains of this on the buds and some of the spiky twigs; the roughnesses on the trunk are got chiefly by groups of graver burrs hammered flat.
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