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Mokkō-shaped tsuba with fan mounts depicting a phoenix and a unicorn
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Artist/maker
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Munechika (active 19th century) (armourer)Umetada School (active 16th century - 19th century) (armourer)
- Material and technique
- iron, with stamped silver
- Dimensions
- 8.3 x 7.7 x 0.4 cm (height x width x depth)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,
- 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.10211
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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. 211
Glossary (2)
phoenix, tsuba
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phoenix
Mythical bird known as hōō in Japan. The Islamic tradition appropriated the far-eastern iconography of the phoenix and used it to represent another mythical bird, the simurgh.
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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)
Mokkō; on the front are sunk two fan-mounts of stamped silver, that at the top is [fan]-shaped [see Fig. 9], with a flying "phoenix" (hōō), that at the bottom [rounded heart]-shaped [see Fig. 10], with a "unicorn" (kirin), both amid clouds; on each face are a few patches of cloud in faint sunk relief and on the back is also, in base, a raised seal signature in silver: Munechika.
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