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Aori-shaped tsuba with tea ceremony cauldron and poem
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 19th century (1801 - 1900)
- Material and technique
- obverse and reverse: iron, with gold; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper, and partly gilded obverse: with cast iron and shibuichi; central silver ground, with punched ishime decoration
- Dimensions
- 6.5 x 5.6 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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processed material › metal › iron,processed material › metal › gold,processed material › metal › alloy › copper alloy › shibuichi,processed material › metal › alloy › silver alloy › shibuichi,
- Technique index
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covered › metallized › gilded
- 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.11077
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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. 1077
Glossary (2)
shibuichi, tsuba
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shibuichi
alloy of copper and silver, patinated to a dull grey-green 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)
Aori; hammered-up edge; on the front, in low relief occupying most of the field is a cast-iron cauldron (for the Tea Ceremony) etched with a pattern of susuki grass; its flat knobbed lid is in shibuichi, its lifting-rings in gold; the ground surrounding it is rough stone-grain silver; on the back, in raised characters is a haikai (three-line poem), also a few dots of gold and the gold-encrusted name of the writer, Shumpo (as [EAX.11052]); specially made tang-hole plugs, partly gilt. Signed at the back: Riūsō Hōgen [Japanese text] with kakihan [Figure]. (The founder of the school.)
The poem reads:
Sumi kuzu ni Mixed with broken charcoal
Iyashi karazaru They do not look vulgar;
Ko no ha kana Yet they are but humble leaves of a tree.
I.e. fallen leaves, vulgar as they look on the ground, no longer seem so when mixed with charcoal and so promoted for use in the Tea Ceremony.
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