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Mokkō-shaped tsuba with wild geese amid clouds
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Material and technique
- obverse and reverse: iron, with hammered-up edge, gold nunome-zōgan decoration, silvered and gilded details, and inlaid with shakudō obverse: with silver nunome-zōgan decoration reverse: inlaid with silver
- Dimensions
- 8.3 x 7.5 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › gold,
- Technique index
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covered › metallized › gilded,covered › metallized › silvered,
- 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.11091
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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. 1091
Glossary (3)
nunome-zōgan, shakudō, tsuba
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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.
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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)
Faint mokkō; edges hammered up; in low relief on a softly irregular ground are the large figures of five wild-geese (two of them at the back) flying downwards through patches of cloud (graduated gold nunome); they are either gilt or partly silvered, partly gilt, with shakudō eyes; above, on the front, is the upper edge of the beclouded full moon in silver nunome, and the reflection of this, in silver inlay, is seen at the back amid low-relief waves.
One bird's head partly overlaps the kōgai-hole.
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