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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Octagonal tsuba with phoenix, kirin, and dragonfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Octagonal tsuba with phoenix, kirin, and dragon

Glossary (5)

kozuka, nunome-zōgan, phoenix, shakudō, tsuba

  • kozuka

    The handle that holds the small knife called the kogatana.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • shakudō

    alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black 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) by Albert James Koop

    The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)

    Octagonal; modelled in low relief on irregularly grained ground; on the front a flying "phoenix" (hōō) and a "unicorn" (kirin) with a table of offerings, clouds, etc.; at the back, two "smooth" dragons and cloudsl the whole of this relief is richly decorated with tinted gold nunome, and the same technique supplies the almost symmetrical conventional ornaments and scrolls that fill the wide flat border; sd. of lobed outline.

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