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Tsuba with a Boys' Festival Banner depicting Shōki and a demon
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 18th century (1701 - 1800)
- Material and technique
- shibuichi, with katakiri engraving (oblique chisel-cuts), and iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
- Dimensions
- 6.8 x 6.2 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shibuichi,processed material › metal › alloy › silver alloy › shibuichi,
- Technique index
- Object type index
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arms/armour › koshirae › kodogu › tsuba
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
- Accession no.
- EAX.10991
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Further reading
Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 991
Glossary (3)
Shōki, shibuichi, tsuba
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Shōki
Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demon
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shibuichi
alloy of copper and silver, patinated to a dull grey-green colour
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tsuba
Japanese sword guard.
Location
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- 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
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The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)
The front nearly filled by part of a Boys' Festival banner of Shōki holding aloft a struggling demon in katakiri engraving (face lightly modelled) with details in iroye inlay; by it is the furred scabbard of a tall lance; at the back, in the same technique, are a banneret with oni device and the weighted tassel of the larger banner.
F. V. Dickins Collection. An almost identical guard of the same size in the Victoria and Albert Museum is signed by Kuzui II [see EAX.10978].
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