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Octagonal tsuba depicting Yamabushi, or itinerant friars, carrying a portable book box
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Material and technique
- bronze, with cut and filed openwork decoration, punched ishime decoration, and inlaid with shakudō and gold; shakudō rim; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
- Dimensions
- 8 x 7.3 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › bronze,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shakudō,processed material › metal › gold,
- 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.11090
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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. 1090
Glossary (2)
shakudō, tsuba
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shakudō
alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black 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)
Rounded octagonal; negative silhouette piercing, occupying most of the field and representing the oi or book-box (a sort of pedestal cupboard on three feet) which is carried on the back of the Yamabushi (itinerant friars), with one of their mushroom-shaped hats below; ground of fine ishime encrusted in shakudō with trails of scrolling stems set with tiny tsuta badges; the raised border is grooved and partly encrusted with gold; shakudō rim. Perhaps Shōami work (Group XII).
The motive here illustrated is called tsuta no hosomichi, "the creeper-clad lane" and has reference to a famous passage in the Ise Monogatari, an early tenth century romance.
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