Browse: 1146 objects
Tsuba depicting five warriors fighting during the Gempei wars
-
Details
- Associated place
- Date
- c. 1800
- Material and technique
- iron, with cut and filed openwork decoration, Hikone-bori carving, and iro-e zōgan (multi-metal inlay) decoration; rim with gold nunome-zōgan decoration; tang-hole plugged with soft metal, probably copper
- Dimensions
- 8.1 x 7.8 cm (height x width)
- Material index
-
processed material › metal › iron,
- Technique index
-
cut,
- Object type index
-
arms/armour › koshirae › kodogu › tsuba
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Sir Arthur H. Church, 1915.
- Accession no.
- EAX.10790
-
Further reading
Koop, Albert James, The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba), 3 vols (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1929), no. 790
Glossary (2)
nunome-zōgan, tsuba
-
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.
-
tsuba
Japanese sword guard.
Location
-
- 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
-
The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)
A pair of guards, each with episodes from the Gempei wars (Japan, 12th century); on the larger are five warriors fighting amongst rocks and pine-trees; on the other [EAX.10791], Kajiwara Kagetoki escapes from his four Taira pursuers by hiding in a hollow tree, the flight of two doves from which (only one is here shown) is assumed by them to prove that their quarry is not there; specially made tang-hole plugs; border gilt in nunome.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum