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An unpublished catalogue of the A. H. Church collection of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) by Albert James Koop.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 petals or snow crystals

  • Literature notes

    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.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (Higo province) (place of creation)
    Date
    18th century (1701 - 1800)
    Artist/maker
    Shimizu-Jingo School (possibly active 17th - 19th century) (armourer)
    Material and technique
    iron, carved in low relief, and inlaid with silver wire, and with gold and gold wire nunome-zōgan decoration
    Dimensions
    8.6 x 7.8 x 0.335 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    formed carved,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
    Accession no.
    EAX.10316.a
  • Further reading

    Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 316 a

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

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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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