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Tsuba depicting a swimming crane
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 1806
- Material and technique
- iron, with punched decoration, gold nunome-zōgan decoration, and inlaid with silver, gold, and shakudō; ryōhitsu plugged with soft metals
- Dimensions
- 8.2 x 7.5 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › gold,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shakudō
- 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.10840
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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. 840
Glossary (3)
nunome-zōgan, shakudō, tsuba
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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.
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shakudō
alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black 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)
Rounded oblong; modelled in soft low relief; on the front, waves with a swimming crane (in silver, gold and shakudō), also rocks and an overhanging pomegranate tree; at the back, clouds above and below, and an outlying branch of the tree; details in tinted gold nunome; ground punched with irregularly lobed compartments; sd. of fimbriated outline. Signed in fine gold wire inlay; Bishū (Owari province) Shigemasa [Japanese text] saku, and dated Bunkwa III (1806), 8th month.
This is the only instance I know of a crane represented as swimming.
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