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Tsuba depicting Bashikō about to perform acupuncture on a dragon
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Material and technique
- iron, with hammered-up edge
- Dimensions
- 8.1 x 7.4 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- 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.11251
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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. 1251
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)
Of very irregular outline, but generally rounded oblong, with hammered-up edge; decorated in soft low relief with the Taoist magician Ma Shi-huang seated on a rocky ledge; from the waves below issues a dragon, whose throat he is about to cure by acupuncture; at the back is a man crouching asleep beneath a pine-tree, with a rain-storm swirling overhead. Unsigned, but inscribed: Tōyei-zan no hotori ni oite ("in the neighbourhood of Tōyei-zan," Kiōto) mei no gotoku ("by order") kore wo horu ("carved this").
F. V. Dickins Collection. Possibly one of a pair of tsuba, the other bearing the artist's name. Interesting as being a complicated and elaborate design, without any inlay or incrustation.
Ma Shih-huang (Japanese, Bashikō), one of the sennin (hsien-jên), was a legendary physician of China (2697-2597 BC) who is said to have cured a sick dragon by acupuncture and a draight of licorice, and to have been carried up to heaven by the grateful creature.
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