Sword guard (Tsuba) Depicting Hotei (布袋図鐔)

Japanese

Not on view

This tsuba shows on the obverse God of Luck Hotei who shakes a nut tree so that a woman can pick up the nuts from the ground. Her child is stretching out its arms towards the jolly deity and towards the left, we see Hotei’s famous lage bag. Except for some a parts of the tree, the reverse is left undecorated.

Tomonobu (友信) was the second generation of the Someya (染谷) School. His first name was Kichigorō (吉五郎) but his years of birth and death are unknown, although we know from extant dated works that he was mainly active around the Bunsei era (文政, 1818-1830). It is said that Tomonobu had also studied painting with Tani Bunchō (谷文晁, 1763-1840).

Sword guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Hotei (布袋図鐔), Copper-silver alloy shibuichi), gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper, Japanese

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Obverse

Sword guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Hotei (布袋図鐔), Copper-silver alloy shibuichi), gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper, Japanese
Sword guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Hotei (布袋図鐔), Copper-silver alloy shibuichi), gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper, Japanese

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.