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Octagonal tsuba with smilax plants and matsukawa-bishi, or overlapping lozenges
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Artist/maker
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Myōchin Munehisa (active 1825 - 1850) (armourer)Myōchin School (active 16th - 19th century) (armourer)Suzuki Yoshinori (active 19th century) (metalworker)
- Material and technique
- iron, with iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration, probably in gold, shakudō, and copper, and possibly in shibuichi; false ryōhitsu made of shakudō, with etched decoration; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
- Dimensions
- 9.5 x 8.7 cm max. (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shakudō,processed material › metal › gold,processed material › metal › alloy › silver alloy › shibuichi,
- Technique index
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printed › intaglio print › etching,
- 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.10091
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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. 91
Glossary (3)
shakudō, shibuichi, tsuba
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shakudō
alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black colour
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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)
Iron, of grained texture. Octagonal, deeply cupped; the front covered with faint close vertical striation and encrusted in low-relief iro-e zōgan with trails of smilax, one continued onto the back; false ryōhitsu (not pierced), one of fan-mount shape, one of matsukawa (see no. 65 [EAX.10065]) form, each with inlaid "plug" of shakudō etched with a dappled pattern.
Signed on the front in swordsmiths' style, for the iron: Kayō Kimpu no jū ("resident of Kanazawa in Kaga province") Myōchin Ki no Munehisa with kakihan (as in no. 93 [EAX.10093]); and on the back, for the decoration: Suzuki Yoshinori with kakihan (as in no. 70 [EAX.10070]).
Bing Collection. Japan Society's Loan Exhibition, London, 1905, no. Q.88, pl. 17.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum