Browse: 10610 objects
Tsuba depicting Shōki the Demon Queller
-
Details
- Associated place
-
Asia › Japan › Honshū › Fukushima prefecture › Aizu (place of creation)
- Date
- 1st half of the 18th century
- Artist/maker
-
Shōami School (active 1601 - 1909) (armourer)Aizu-Shōami (possibly active 1601 - 1909) (armourer)
- Material and technique
- iron, carved in bold relief, with gold nunome-zōgan decoration, and inlaid with shibuichi, shakudō, and silver
- Dimensions
- 8.9 x 8.5 cm (height x width)
- Material index
-
processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › gold,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shibuichi,processed material › metal › alloy › silver alloy › shibuichi,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shakudō
- Technique index
- Object type index
-
arms/armour › koshirae › kodogu › tsuba
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
- Accession no.
- EAX.10270
-
Further reading
Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 270
Glossary (5)
Shōki, nunome-zōgan, shakudō, shibuichi, tsuba
-
Shōki
Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demon
-
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.
-
shakudō
alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black colour
-
shibuichi
alloy of copper and silver, patinated to a dull grey-green colour
-
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)
Double-concave; modelled in bold relief with the Demon-queller Shōki rushing, with outstretched sword, over a wooden bridge in pursuit of a demon (shown on the back); details of the figures are in shibuichi, shakudō and silver incrustation and gold nunome; the piles of the bridge, surrounded by waves, are modelled below on both faces.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum