Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Mokkō-shaped tsuba with petals or snow crystals

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

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)

    Cruciform mokkō; each face with five (or three) flower-forms having five blunt petals, in low relief and gilt in nunome; near these are parts of "snow-heap" rings in silver wire inlay and double-lined karakusa scrollwork in gold wire nunome; faintly raised border of medium width, overrun by the ornament; "peach-shaped" ryōhitsu (of ordinary size, oval with outward point).

    The "flowers" probably represent snow-crystals, although in nature these are always sexpartite.

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