Magazine article by
Edgar Jepson: The Iron Tsuba of Japan (Section: Oriental Art), published in volume Vol. 70 (September–December) of The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, Vol. 70 (September–December); pp. 143-152 / C. Reginald Grundy [ed.] — London: Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, 1924.
Owner's half black morocco, gilt lettering to spine, blue cloth boards. Two volumes bound together without original covers. Size 28.5 x 22 cm.
Vol. 1: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXIX. | (MAY—AUGUST, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xviii [xix] [1, 2 - plate] 3-249 [250].
Vol. 2: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXX. | (SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xxii [2 blanks] [1, 2 - plate] 3-261 [262].
The Iron Tsuba of Japan by Edgar Jepson
The heart of Japan was in the sword. However admirable may be the paintings, the prints, the netsuke, the lacquer, or the bronzes of the Japanese masters, the supreme artistic achievements of Japan were the blades of Masamune, Muramasa, Sadamune, and Rai Kunitsugu. But not a little of the heart of Japan went also in the tsuba, the guard which protected the hand that wielded the blade, into the iron tsuba of the fighting Samurai. Beside the forgers of the iron tsuba of Japan the ironsmiths of the rest of the world have been mere children.
The earliest tsuba were of bronze or copper, often gilded. It is probable that they were replaced by iron tsuba during the Kamakura period, the great fighting era, which lasted from
A.D. 1185 to 1333. During the later half of the twelfth century leather tsuba, strengthened by thin iron plates or a metal rim, also replaced the bronze and copper tsuba. It was at this time that a family of armourers of the name of Masuda, and in particular Masuda Munesuke, the founder of the Myochin family, began to forge iron tsuba — thin, round plates of great hardness and density. But it is probable that no tsuba perforated with a view to decorative effects were forged before the end of the fourteenth century.
These fourteenth-century tsuba are exceedingly rare in England. I have seen none in the museums, none in the famous collections that have been sold during the last ten years. Those photographed in Herr Oeder's book might easily be the fifteenth century. No. 1 is a curious cup-shape tsuba decorated with a bronze and copper inlay. No. 2, with its edges curiously twisted in the forging, looks like Myochin work. But it is not of the Myochin iron.
The Myochin family produced some of the greatest ironsmiths of Japan. Armourers first of all, tsubasmiths, forgers of sake-kettles, articulated reptiles, crustacea, and insects — everything that can be done with iron they did; they pushed their medium to its limit. They were forging iron tsuba in 1160, and they were still forging them in 1860. And it was their own iron, or rather their own steel. They discovered the secret of it early, and they kept that secret in the family for all those hundreds of years. There is no mistaking a Myochin tsuba: balance it on your finger and tap it with a piece of metal, always it gives forth a clear bell-like ring that you get from the work of no other ironsmith, Japanese or European. Always the Myochin tsuba is before everything a protection to the hand of the swordsman; to that everything is, as it should be, subordinated. No. 3 is a Myochin tsuba of the fifteenth century, and probably of the early fifteenth century. No. 4, by Myochin Munetaka, perforated with a grotesque figure, is an example of that twisting and twisting of the iron in the forging till it forms a pattern like the grain of wood. The Myochin smiths invented these wood-grain tsuba, and no other smiths equalled them in their forging.
In the sixteenth century, the fighting tsuba was probably at its best. It was a century of great tsubasmiths. Then the first Nobuiye, whose tsuba fetched £100 apiece,
circa 1800, in Japan, and the first Kaneiye flourished. No. 5 is a tsuba forged by a great smith, Iyesada of Sotome, in the manner of Nobuiye I, decorated with the karakusa tendrils that Nobuiye delighted in, with lightning and clouds. No. 6 is a guard of Sanada Tembo, the chief smith of the Tembo family, stamped, punning fashion, with the character Tembo. Akin to the Tembo tsuba were those of the Kiami and Hoan smiths. Then also the Heianjo smiths and the Owari smiths, especially those of Nagoya and the Yamakichi family, forged their strongest tsuba. Those of the Yamakichi were tested after the forging by being pounded in iron mortars — at least, so the legend runs. But they were a sternly utilitarian family, and I have never seen a Yamakichi tsuba of any beauty.
In the later half of the fifteenth century arose the fashion of decorating tsuba with an inlay, zogan, of bronze. The Heianjo tsuba, forged at Kyoto in the latter half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, were often thus inlaid. The earliest of them were called "Onin", of which No. 7 is an example. In addition to the bronze inlay around the edge, it is inlaid with a representation, some say, of snow; others say, of the duckweed on a pond. No. 8 is probably a Heianjo tsuba, but I am not quite sure about it. The inlaid acacia branches might be very early Shoami work. But to judge by the iron, it is a fifteenth-century tsuba; and the authorities place the beginning of the Shoami school not later than early in the sixteenth century.
No. 10 is an example of the Fushimi-zogan, a flat inlay of a light-coloured bronze. These tsuba took their name from the fact that they were first forged at Fushimi, in Yamashiro, in the sixteenth century. It is of the type known as Mon-zukashi, perforated with crests (mon)
à jour. The Yoshiro-zogan tsuba were also first forged at Fushimi by Yoshiro Naomasa. They were distinguished from the Fushimi-zogan by the fact that their inlay was generally a little raised-not always-for the inlay of No. 9, a tsuba forged by a later nineteenth-century Yoshiro, is quite flat. It is an interesting tsuba, for, with its decoration grown florid and excessive, it marks the intermediate stage between the simple and delightful designs of the genuine fighting tsuba and the elaborate pictures in gold and silver on the tsuba of the eighteenth-century smiths of Awa and Kyoto, which have become mere ornaments of the goldsmith.
The Gomoku-zogan (No. 11) tsuba were probably first forged earlier than the Fushimi and Yoshiro-zogan tsuba. This inlay, in slight relief, is a representation in a light-coloured bronze and copper of twigs caught in the eddies of streams. The seventeenth century and early eighteenth century were the great periods of perforated tsuba. The designs, and they are often admirable, are for the most part in plain fretwork; but they are also chased. No. 12, a crane under an acacia, is a tsuba of a Higo smith, great forgers of fighting tsuba during this period. These smiths also excelled in nunome zogan, a very thin gold and silver inlay, with which they further decorated their perforated guards. The smiths of the Umetada and Shoami families also forged iron tsuba during this period; but their designs, though sometimes pleasing enough, are rarely fine. The best work of Myoju Umetada is in sentoku, not iron.
The Choshu smiths, coming later, surpass the perforated guards of both the Umetada and Shoami smiths in beauty of design. No. 13, a lotus in the round, not only fretwork, but also engraved, is a good example of the admirable balance they so often attained in their designs. It is a sufficiently realistic lotus, but yet of a delightful simplicity. In considerable contrast is No. 14, the dragon by Soheishi Soten — one of the only two authentic tsuba of his forging known — the first forger of hikone-bori tsuba, which were in extraordinary favour in Japan during the eighteenth century, and illustrated every important event in Japanese history. It is on the elaborate side, but fine, strong work, and an excellent guard to the hand, for the lighter and more open part, which gives the design its admirable balance, is on the inside, and not exposed to the full swing of an opponent's blade.
A few years ago there was a tendency to decry the Namban tsuba as having sprung too directly from foreign sources. But though the original suggestion may have been Chinese, or, as some say, Portuguese, the Japanese made it entirely their own, as characteristically Japanese as anything can well be, but, it must be admitted, of a decadent period. The school took its rise at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the early tsuba were forged of a specially hard iron, the Wootz, imported from Southern India. No. 15, the signs of the Zodiac, is an excellent tsuba from the fighting point of view. Both it and No. 16 are of quite charming, if elaborate, design, and both of them, with their delicate scroll-work, so astonishingly undercut, are the very last word in the work of the ironsmith-veritable iron lace.
To return to the simpler perforated tsuba, the smiths of Akasaka, a suburb of Tokyo, produced probably the most charming designs. Their style derives considerably from the Higo smiths, and their earlier fighting tsuba are very like the Higo tsuba. But always their work was just a little lighter than that of the Higo smiths, and in the end they moved right away from them and became the forgers of very light guards indeed.
No. 17, is a representation of the Hiyokudori, the fabulous double bird, in which were reincarnated the souls of the two lovers, Gompachi and Komurasaki; and No. 18, “the tsuba of a hundred ducks "— there are about forty — are characteristic designs of the school. In the work of the Akasaka smiths the balance, which makes the design of a good tsuba so admirable and delightful, attains its height. This admirable balance seems often to be obtained by a deliberate sacrifice of symmetry. About nine hundred and ninety-nine European ironsmiths out of a thousand would have made the right and left sides of the Hiyoku-dori line by line, and perforation by perforation, exactly alike; he would have cut out exactly as many ducks on the one side of “the tsuba of a hundred ducks” as on the other, and made each duck on the right side correspond exactly in position and attitude with a duck on the left side. By variations the tsubasmith attained a finer balance, almost a higher symmetry.
No. 19, often called by collectors the "rose-window" tsuba, but really a stylised chrysanthemum, is a favourite design of the Akasaka smiths, but Hizen work and inlaid in the Hizen manner with gold nunome. No. 20 is a Satsuma tsuba of the middle period. The Satsuma smiths of the nineteenth century produced probably the most ornate of all the iron guards, for the most part calibashes and beans with their leaves and tendrils realistic in the extreme, but of charming design.
Few crafts have been carried further than that of the tsubasmith; few crafts working in a difficult medium have handled more subjects with greater feeling for beauty or greater liveliness of fancy. It is interesting to note again and again how school influences school, and smith influences smith. But, as in all the applied arts, the finest tsuba were forged by men who never lost sight of the purpose of a tsuba, that it is before everything a protection to the hand, and never subjected that purpose to a passion for virtuosity.
Illustrations:
No 1. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, WITH BRONZE AND COPPER INLAY
No. 2. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, RESEMBLING MYOCHIN WORK
No. 3. MYOCHIN TSUBA, FIFTEENTH CENTURY
No. 4. MYOCHIN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY
No. 5. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA
No. 6. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA BY IYESADA OF SOTOME BY SANADA TEMBO
No. 7. ONIN TSUBA
No. 8. HEIANJO (?) TSUBA
No. 9. YOSHIRO TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY
No. 10. FUSHIMI-ZOGAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY
No. 11.- GOMOKU-ZOGAN, SIXTEENTH CENTURY
No. 12. HIGO TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
No. 13. CHOSHU TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
No. 14. SOTEN TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
No. 15. NAMBAN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
No. 16. NAMBAN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY
Nos. 17. AND 18. AKASAKA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
No. 19. HIZEN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
No. 20. SATSUMA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Softcover volume, 33 x 26 cm, collated in folio, not bound, in publisher’s French flapped pictorial wrappers, lettering to spine; printed on thick wove Arches paper watermarked “MBM”, upper edge trimmed, owner’s blind stamp to h.t. “Ex Libris Comte Tony de Vibraye”, glassine dust jacket, in a slipcase. Collation: π2 1-262, total 54 leaves, plus 4 leaves in wrappers, plus 10 plates, incl. frontispiece; coloured aquatints after Sylvain Sauvage; coloured etched vignette to front wrapper, gilt woodcut to back wrapper, woodcut title-page and woodcut headpiece after the same. Pp.: [4] [1] 2-102 [2]. Front wrapper (gilt and black): LA NUIT & LE MOMENT | {vignette} | OU | LES MATINÉES DE CYTHÈRE | PAR | MONSIEUR DE CRÉBILLON LE FILS | — || Title-page (woodcut): CRÉBILLON LE FILS | — | LA NUIT ET LE MOMENT | OU | LES MATINÉES | DE CYTHÈRE | {vignette} | A PARIS | AUX DEPENS D'UN AMATEUR | — | M CM XXIV || Limitation: De cette édition il a été tiré un exemplaire unique sur japon impérial comportant dix aquarelles originales, deux cents trente exemplaires sur vélin d' Arches numérotés 1 à 230, dont les dix premiers avec une suite de hors texte sur japon. N° 1 [Print run limited to 230 copies on Arches plus a unique copy on Japon with original watercolours, this is copy № 1 on wove paper]. Seller’s description: La Nuit et le moment ou Les Matinées de Cythère. Paris, Au dépens d'un amateur, 1924. In-4, en feuilles, non rogné, couverture illustrée et étui. Ouvrage illustré de 4 gravures sur bois et de 10 eaux-fortes libres en couleurs hors texte de Sylvain Sauvage. Tirage à 231 exemplaires, celui-ci le n°1 sur vélin d'Arches. Manque la suite de hors texte sur japon. De la bibliothèque du Comte Tony de Vibraye, avec cachet à froid. Dutel, n°2062. Catalogue raisonné: honesterotica.com; Dutel III 2062. Contributors: Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon [Crébillon fils] (French, 1707 – 1777) – author. Sylvain Sauvage [Félix Roy] (French, 1888 – 1948) – artist. Provenance: Antoine Henri Gaston Hurault de Vibraye [Comte Tony de Vibraye] (French, 1893 – 1951)
Three volumes, 33 x 26.5 x 7 cm each, uniformly bound in 2/3 vellum over marbled boards, outlined with gilt fillet, brown label with gilt lettering to flat spine with double fillet faux-bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, other untrimmed, publisher’s wrappers preserved, incl. spine; collotype plates with captioned glassine guards; armorial bookplate of Comte Alain de Suzannet to front pastedown in each volume. Two volumes of Première partie, wanting, contain La vie artistique : texte and La vie artistique : planches. Title-page (red and black): JACQUES CALLOT | PAR | J. LIEURE | Introduction de F. Courboin | Conservateur du Cabinet des Estampes à la Bibliothèque Nationale | — | DEUXIÈME PARTIE | CATALOGUE DE L’ŒUVRE GRAVÉ | TOME I (II, III) | — | PARIS | ÉDITIONS DE LA GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS | 106, Boulevard Saint-Germain (6e) | 1924 (1927, 1927) || Vol. 1 (1924): [4] [1] 2-122 [2], wrappers, plates 1-299; printed on September 15, 1924, by André Lesot (Nemours) and D. Jacomet et Cie (Paris). Vol. 2 (1927): [4] [1] 2-106 [2], wrappers, plates 300-652. Vol. 3 (1927): [4] [1] 2-128 [4], wrappers, plates 653-1428; printed on September 5, 1926, by Imprimerie moderne des Beaux-Arts (Bois-Colombes) and D. Jacomet et Cie (Paris). Contributors: Jules Lieure (French, 1866 – 1948) – author. Jacques Callot (French, c. 1592 – 1635) – artist. Gazette des Beaux-Arts (f. 1859) – publisher. François Courboin (French, 1865 – 1926) – author. D. Jacomet et Cie (Paris) – printer. Daniel Jacomet (French, 1894 – 1966) – printer. André Lesot (French, 1874-1951) – printer. Imprimerie moderne des Beaux-Arts (Bois-Colombes) Comte Alain de Suzannet (French, 1882 – 1950) – provenance.
Hardcover, 24 x 16 cm, bound in quarter black calf over marbled boards, raised bands and gilt lettering to spine, printed on Van Gelder Zonen laid paper with wide margins, bottom and fore edge untrimmed, pp. [i-viii] ix-xiv, [2] 3-89 [90], total 104 pages, two flyleaves, frontispiece in colour with captioned tissue guard, and 28 b/w plates; total 83 leaves. Title-page: A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE | OF AN EXHIBITION OF | JAPANESE | FIGURE PRINTS | FROM | MORONOBU TO TOYOKUNI | BY | LOUIS V. LEDOUX | {publisher’s device} | NEW YORK | THE GROLIER CLUB | 1924 || Edition: 1st edition limited to 300 copies on Van Gelder Zonen paper in April, 2024. Exhibition from January 25 to March 3, 1923, at the Grolier club. Library of Congress Control Number: 23009175 OCLC Number: 2583847 Louis Vernon Ledoux (American, 1880 – 1948)
Description: Softcover, French flapped wrappers, lettered front, back (advert.) and spine, collated in-4to, 24.3 x 20.2 cm, printed on thick wove paper Vélin pur fil Lafuma-Navarre, print run limited to 335 copies from which this is copy № 219; outer margin untrimmed, some leaves uncut, glassine DJ. Limitation: 1 copy (A) on Japon Impérial + double suite of plates + suite of original drawings, 4 copies (B-E) on Japon Impérial + double suite of plates, 15 copies on on Japon Impérial + suite of plates on Vieux Japon teinté (F-T), 315 copies on Vélin pur fil Lafuma-Navarre, of which 15 (I-XV) not for sale. Copyright: Libraire Gallimard, 1924. Printed: March 10, 1924 – text by Coulouma (Argenteuil) under direction of H. Barthélemy, lithographs printed by Marchizet (Paris). Front wrapper (in letterpress two-colour border): Tableaux Contemporains – no 4 | . TABLEAU | de | L'AMOUR | VÉNAL | par | FRANCIS CARCO | Illustré | de douze lithographies en noir | par Luc-Albert Moreau | PARIS | ÉDITIONS DE LA NOUVELLE REVUE FRANÇAISE | 3, rue de Grenelle || Title-page: Same, without a frame, in black, L'AMOUR | VÉNAL in brown. Collation: 4to; 14 a4 2-164, total 68 leaves with wrappers included in collation plus 12 plates, incl. frontispiece, extraneous to collation. Pagination: [2 wrapper] [6] [i] ii-vii [viii blank] [9] 10-122 [2 colophon] [2 blank] [2 wrapper]; total 136 pages incl. wrappers, plus ils. Contributors: Francis Carco [François Carcopino-Tusoli] (French, 1886 – 1958) – author. Luc-Albert Moreau (French, 1882 – 1948) – artist. La Nouvelle Revue Française (nrf) (Paris)– publisher. Gaston Gallimard (French, 1881 – 1975) – publisher.
Front wrapper: In the three-compartment orange frame: 1st compartment: HISTOIRE DES DOCTRINES SOCIALISTES | *** (LES IDÉES ET LES FAITS) *** | 2nd compartment: BLANQUI | PAR | Maurice DOMMANGET | {circular device} | 3rd compartment: *** 1924 *** | LIBRAIRIE DE L'HUMANITÉ | 120 • RUE LAFAYETTE • 120 PARIS | Under the frame : Prix : 2 fr. 50 || Title page: HISTOIRE DES DOCTRINES SOCIALISTES | *** (LES IDÉES ET LES FAITS) *** | BLANQUI | PAR Maurice DOMMANGET | {device in a circle} | *** 1924 *** | LIBRAIRIE DE L'HUMANITÉ | 120 • RUE LAFAYETTE • 120 PARIS || Back wrapper: Advert. in an orange frame. Pagination: wrappers included in pagination ; [1-5] 6-95 [96-98] (total 49 leaves incl. wrappers). Collation: wrappers not included in collation: [1]-68. Binding: 18.5 x 12 cm; publisher’s blue wrappers with an orange frame, black lettering to covers and spine; uncut. Russian translation: LIB-2747.2021
Title page: ЖОРЖ-ЖАК ДАНТОН | ИЗБРАННЫЕ РЕЧИ | РЕДАКЦИЯ, ВВЕДЕНИЕ И ПРИМЕЧАНИЯ | Проф. Н. С. ГОЛЬДИНА | {publisher’s device} | ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО УКРАИНЫ | 1924 Lacking wrappers, [2] – blank / frontispiece portrait of Danton, [2] t.p., / imprint, v-xviii, [2] –f.t / blank, 1-111 [112], collation: π2 *8 1-78. Danton, Georges Jacques [Дантон, Жорж Жак] (French, 1759 – 1794). Гольдин, Николай Сергеевич (Ukrainian-Jewish, 1877 – after 1924). Translator unknown.![George Cruikshank : A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Work Executed During The Years 1806-1877; With Collations, Notes, Approximate Values, Facsimiles, And Illustrationsby Albert M. Cohn, author of a bibliographical catalogue of the printed works illustrated by George Cruikshank, etc. London : Office of "The Bookman's Jounral", 1924. [Cohn, Albert M.]](https://varshavskycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LIB-1650-c-scaled-500x500.jpg)
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK | A CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ | OF THE WORK EXECUTED | DURING THE YEARS 1806-1877 | WITH COLLATIONS, NOTES, APPROXIMATE VALUES, | FACSIMILES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS | BY | ALBERT M. COHN | Author of A Bibliographical Catalogue of the Printed | Works Illustrated By George Cruikshank, etc. | LONDON |FROM THE OFFICE OF "THE BOOKMAN'S JOURNAL" | 7 HENRIETTA STREET, STRAND, W.C.2 | 1924. Pagination: ffl, [i, ii] – h.t. / Limited edition (122 of 500), [2] – blank / frontis. lith. portrait of G. Cruikshank w/guard, [iii, iv] – t.p. / printed in G.B., [v, vi] – dedicat. / blank, vii-xvi; [1, 2] – f.t. / blank, 3-375, [376] – Imprint., bfl; 31 leaves of plates, some mounted. Binding: size 30 x 24 x 5.5 cm, hardcover, bevelled boards, original brown cloth with gilded lettering to spine. Top edge gilt, other untrimmed; printed on laid paper. To front pastedown: "Ex libris – Fred Robison Heryer" (round, 55 mm, resembles a coin, printed on heavy gold-coloured foil with embossed lettering and an image of a seated man lettered ALEXANDROY in Greek. To back pastedown: Seller's sticker "From the book of J.W.Robinson Co., Seventh & Grand, Los Angeles." J. W. Robinson Co. – a chain of department stores, established by Joseph Winchester Robinson (American, 1846 – 1891). Some Fred Robison Heryer (American, 1907 – 1992) died in Kansas.
Magazine article by Edgar Jepson: The Iron Tsuba of Japan (Section: Oriental Art), published in volume Vol. 70 (September–December) of The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, Vol. 70 (September–December); pp. 143-152 / C. Reginald Grundy [ed.] — London: Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, 1924. Owner's half black morocco, gilt lettering to spine, blue cloth boards. Two volumes bound together without original covers. Size 28.5 x 22 cm. Vol. 1: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXIX. | (MAY—AUGUST, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xviii [xix] [1, 2 - plate] 3-249 [250]. Vol. 2: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXX. | (SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xxii [2 blanks] [1, 2 - plate] 3-261 [262]. The Iron Tsuba of Japan by Edgar Jepson The heart of Japan was in the sword. However admirable may be the paintings, the prints, the netsuke, the lacquer, or the bronzes of the Japanese masters, the supreme artistic achievements of Japan were the blades of Masamune, Muramasa, Sadamune, and Rai Kunitsugu. But not a little of the heart of Japan went also in the tsuba, the guard which protected the hand that wielded the blade, into the iron tsuba of the fighting Samurai. Beside the forgers of the iron tsuba of Japan the ironsmiths of the rest of the world have been mere children. The earliest tsuba were of bronze or copper, often gilded. It is probable that they were replaced by iron tsuba during the Kamakura period, the great fighting era, which lasted from A.D. 1185 to 1333. During the later half of the twelfth century leather tsuba, strengthened by thin iron plates or a metal rim, also replaced the bronze and copper tsuba. It was at this time that a family of armourers of the name of Masuda, and in particular Masuda Munesuke, the founder of the Myochin family, began to forge iron tsuba — thin, round plates of great hardness and density. But it is probable that no tsuba perforated with a view to decorative effects were forged before the end of the fourteenth century. These fourteenth-century tsuba are exceedingly rare in England. I have seen none in the museums, none in the famous collections that have been sold during the last ten years. Those photographed in Herr Oeder's book might easily be the fifteenth century. No. 1 is a curious cup-shape tsuba decorated with a bronze and copper inlay. No. 2, with its edges curiously twisted in the forging, looks like Myochin work. But it is not of the Myochin iron. The Myochin family produced some of the greatest ironsmiths of Japan. Armourers first of all, tsubasmiths, forgers of sake-kettles, articulated reptiles, crustacea, and insects — everything that can be done with iron they did; they pushed their medium to its limit. They were forging iron tsuba in 1160, and they were still forging them in 1860. And it was their own iron, or rather their own steel. They discovered the secret of it early, and they kept that secret in the family for all those hundreds of years. There is no mistaking a Myochin tsuba: balance it on your finger and tap it with a piece of metal, always it gives forth a clear bell-like ring that you get from the work of no other ironsmith, Japanese or European. Always the Myochin tsuba is before everything a protection to the hand of the swordsman; to that everything is, as it should be, subordinated. No. 3 is a Myochin tsuba of the fifteenth century, and probably of the early fifteenth century. No. 4, by Myochin Munetaka, perforated with a grotesque figure, is an example of that twisting and twisting of the iron in the forging till it forms a pattern like the grain of wood. The Myochin smiths invented these wood-grain tsuba, and no other smiths equalled them in their forging. In the sixteenth century, the fighting tsuba was probably at its best. It was a century of great tsubasmiths. Then the first Nobuiye, whose tsuba fetched £100 apiece, circa 1800, in Japan, and the first Kaneiye flourished. No. 5 is a tsuba forged by a great smith, Iyesada of Sotome, in the manner of Nobuiye I, decorated with the karakusa tendrils that Nobuiye delighted in, with lightning and clouds. No. 6 is a guard of Sanada Tembo, the chief smith of the Tembo family, stamped, punning fashion, with the character Tembo. Akin to the Tembo tsuba were those of the Kiami and Hoan smiths. Then also the Heianjo smiths and the Owari smiths, especially those of Nagoya and the Yamakichi family, forged their strongest tsuba. Those of the Yamakichi were tested after the forging by being pounded in iron mortars — at least, so the legend runs. But they were a sternly utilitarian family, and I have never seen a Yamakichi tsuba of any beauty. In the later half of the fifteenth century arose the fashion of decorating tsuba with an inlay, zogan, of bronze. The Heianjo tsuba, forged at Kyoto in the latter half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, were often thus inlaid. The earliest of them were called "Onin", of which No. 7 is an example. In addition to the bronze inlay around the edge, it is inlaid with a representation, some say, of snow; others say, of the duckweed on a pond. No. 8 is probably a Heianjo tsuba, but I am not quite sure about it. The inlaid acacia branches might be very early Shoami work. But to judge by the iron, it is a fifteenth-century tsuba; and the authorities place the beginning of the Shoami school not later than early in the sixteenth century. No. 10 is an example of the Fushimi-zogan, a flat inlay of a light-coloured bronze. These tsuba took their name from the fact that they were first forged at Fushimi, in Yamashiro, in the sixteenth century. It is of the type known as Mon-zukashi, perforated with crests (mon) à jour. The Yoshiro-zogan tsuba were also first forged at Fushimi by Yoshiro Naomasa. They were distinguished from the Fushimi-zogan by the fact that their inlay was generally a little raised-not always-for the inlay of No. 9, a tsuba forged by a later nineteenth-century Yoshiro, is quite flat. It is an interesting tsuba, for, with its decoration grown florid and excessive, it marks the intermediate stage between the simple and delightful designs of the genuine fighting tsuba and the elaborate pictures in gold and silver on the tsuba of the eighteenth-century smiths of Awa and Kyoto, which have become mere ornaments of the goldsmith. The Gomoku-zogan (No. 11) tsuba were probably first forged earlier than the Fushimi and Yoshiro-zogan tsuba. This inlay, in slight relief, is a representation in a light-coloured bronze and copper of twigs caught in the eddies of streams. The seventeenth century and early eighteenth century were the great periods of perforated tsuba. The designs, and they are often admirable, are for the most part in plain fretwork; but they are also chased. No. 12, a crane under an acacia, is a tsuba of a Higo smith, great forgers of fighting tsuba during this period. These smiths also excelled in nunome zogan, a very thin gold and silver inlay, with which they further decorated their perforated guards. The smiths of the Umetada and Shoami families also forged iron tsuba during this period; but their designs, though sometimes pleasing enough, are rarely fine. The best work of Myoju Umetada is in sentoku, not iron. The Choshu smiths, coming later, surpass the perforated guards of both the Umetada and Shoami smiths in beauty of design. No. 13, a lotus in the round, not only fretwork, but also engraved, is a good example of the admirable balance they so often attained in their designs. It is a sufficiently realistic lotus, but yet of a delightful simplicity. In considerable contrast is No. 14, the dragon by Soheishi Soten — one of the only two authentic tsuba of his forging known — the first forger of hikone-bori tsuba, which were in extraordinary favour in Japan during the eighteenth century, and illustrated every important event in Japanese history. It is on the elaborate side, but fine, strong work, and an excellent guard to the hand, for the lighter and more open part, which gives the design its admirable balance, is on the inside, and not exposed to the full swing of an opponent's blade. A few years ago there was a tendency to decry the Namban tsuba as having sprung too directly from foreign sources. But though the original suggestion may have been Chinese, or, as some say, Portuguese, the Japanese made it entirely their own, as characteristically Japanese as anything can well be, but, it must be admitted, of a decadent period. The school took its rise at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the early tsuba were forged of a specially hard iron, the Wootz, imported from Southern India. No. 15, the signs of the Zodiac, is an excellent tsuba from the fighting point of view. Both it and No. 16 are of quite charming, if elaborate, design, and both of them, with their delicate scroll-work, so astonishingly undercut, are the very last word in the work of the ironsmith-veritable iron lace. To return to the simpler perforated tsuba, the smiths of Akasaka, a suburb of Tokyo, produced probably the most charming designs. Their style derives considerably from the Higo smiths, and their earlier fighting tsuba are very like the Higo tsuba. But always their work was just a little lighter than that of the Higo smiths, and in the end they moved right away from them and became the forgers of very light guards indeed. No. 17, is a representation of the Hiyokudori, the fabulous double bird, in which were reincarnated the souls of the two lovers, Gompachi and Komurasaki; and No. 18, “the tsuba of a hundred ducks "— there are about forty — are characteristic designs of the school. In the work of the Akasaka smiths the balance, which makes the design of a good tsuba so admirable and delightful, attains its height. This admirable balance seems often to be obtained by a deliberate sacrifice of symmetry. About nine hundred and ninety-nine European ironsmiths out of a thousand would have made the right and left sides of the Hiyoku-dori line by line, and perforation by perforation, exactly alike; he would have cut out exactly as many ducks on the one side of “the tsuba of a hundred ducks” as on the other, and made each duck on the right side correspond exactly in position and attitude with a duck on the left side. By variations the tsubasmith attained a finer balance, almost a higher symmetry. No. 19, often called by collectors the "rose-window" tsuba, but really a stylised chrysanthemum, is a favourite design of the Akasaka smiths, but Hizen work and inlaid in the Hizen manner with gold nunome. No. 20 is a Satsuma tsuba of the middle period. The Satsuma smiths of the nineteenth century produced probably the most ornate of all the iron guards, for the most part calibashes and beans with their leaves and tendrils realistic in the extreme, but of charming design. Few crafts have been carried further than that of the tsubasmith; few crafts working in a difficult medium have handled more subjects with greater feeling for beauty or greater liveliness of fancy. It is interesting to note again and again how school influences school, and smith influences smith. But, as in all the applied arts, the finest tsuba were forged by men who never lost sight of the purpose of a tsuba, that it is before everything a protection to the hand, and never subjected that purpose to a passion for virtuosity. Illustrations: No 1. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, WITH BRONZE AND COPPER INLAY No. 2. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, RESEMBLING MYOCHIN WORK No. 3. MYOCHIN TSUBA, FIFTEENTH CENTURY No. 4. MYOCHIN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 5. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA No. 6. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA BY IYESADA OF SOTOME BY SANADA TEMBO No. 7. ONIN TSUBA No. 8. HEIANJO (?) TSUBA No. 9. YOSHIRO TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 10. FUSHIMI-ZOGAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 11.- GOMOKU-ZOGAN, SIXTEENTH CENTURY No. 12. HIGO TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 13. CHOSHU TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 14. SOTEN TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 15. NAMBAN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 16. NAMBAN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY Nos. 17. AND 18. AKASAKA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 19. HIZEN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 20. SATSUMA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
