Sword guard (Tsuba) Depicting Hanshan and Shide (寒山拾得図鐔)
Not on view
The obverse of this tsuba shows Hanshan (寒山, Japanese: Kanzan) and Shide (拾得, Japanese: Jittoku), popular figures in Zen painting, with their attributes scroll and broom respectively and with Shide performing water calligraphy of the characters for "Enlightenment." The reverse is left undecorated and the rim is highlighted in gold.
The artist Jōi (乗意), real name Nara Tashichi (奈良太七), later Sugiura Sen’emon (杉浦仙右衛門), was born in Genroku 14 (元禄, 1701) as son of a retainer of the Toda-Matsudaira family (戸田松平) in Mino province. Having arrived in Edo in the early years of the Kyōhō era (享保, 1716-1736), Jōi studied with the Nara School master Toshinaga (寿永). He signed with the name Nagaharu (永春) and the art names Issandō (一蝅堂) and Jōi (乗意) and died in Hōreki eleven (宝暦, 1761).
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