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Tsuba with maple branch and tanzaku, or poem card, with a poem by Sugawara no Michizane
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Material and technique
- obverse and reverse: iron, with hammered-up edge, and inlaid with gold; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper obverse: inlaid with silver
- Dimensions
- 7.4 x 6.5 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › gold,
- 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.10908.a
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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. 908 a
Glossary
tsuba
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tsuba
Japanese sword guard.
Location
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- currently in research collection
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Publications online
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The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)
Four-lobed (but not mokkō), with hammered-up edge; on each face, in low relief with gold inlay, is a branch of maple above, with a few falling leaves; on the front is also, in gold and silver incrustation, a tanzaku (long card for writing poems on) engraved with a poem on the subject. Signed: Hakuō (as last) saku.
The poem, written by the famous statesman Sugawara no Michizane (d. AD. 903), runs as follows:
Kono tabi wa Though this time I bring
nusa mo tori-aezu no offerings of cloth,
Tamuke-yama May the gods take to their
momiji no nishiki hearts' content
kami no mani-mani Of the damask of the maple leaves on Mount Tamuke.
It was incorporated in Kokinshū, an anthology of over 1100 poems compiled between 905 and 922.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum