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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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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Mokkō-shaped tsuba with pine cones and needles

  • Literature notes

    Faint mokkō; each face encrusted with a few pine cones and needles in shakudō and copper on an ishime ground; large rh. in the outline of demon-headed fronts of ridge-tiles, with shakudō linings added later (one of these partly broken away); shakudō rim (original).

    This guard shows signs of having been many times refitted to different blades.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    1st half of the 18th century
    Material and technique
    copper, with punched ishime surface, and inlaid with shakudō and copper; shakudō rim; ryōhitsu with shakudō rims; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
    Dimensions
    8.4 x 8.3 x 0.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10958
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 958

Glossary (2)

shakudō, tsuba

  • shakudō

    alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black colour

  • 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)

    Faint mokkō; each face encrusted with a few pine cones and needles in shakudō and copper on an ishime ground; large rh. in the outline of demon-headed fronts of ridge-tiles, with shakudō linings added later (one of these partly broken away); shakudō rim (original).

    This guard shows signs of having been many times refitted to different blades.
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