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Lobed tsuba in the form of a rice bale with two rats
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- possibly 17th century (1601 - 1700)
- Material and technique
- iron, with ito-sukashi decoration (‘thread-piercing’ openwork), and iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration, in iron wire, brass, and silver
- Dimensions
- 6.9 x 6.7 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › brass,
- Technique index
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cut,
- 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.10920
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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. 920
Glossary
tsuba
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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)
20-lobed, modelled as the circular end of a rice-bale, of woven straw, with two marauding rats in brass and silver; there are two sawcuts and in two places loose straws and a knotted tying-cord are rendered by iron wire. Signed: Bushū no jū ("resident of Musashi province", i.e. of Yedo) Nara Masayoshi [Japanese text]. (Not the Nara Masayoshi quoted by Hara, he having worked only at fuchi-kashira (hilt-ends) with views of Mii-dera monastery, whence his nickname of Miidera.)
The Victoria and Albert Museum has another copy of this design, which was evidently a favourite one.
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