Mounting for a Slung Sword (Itomaki-tachi Koshirae) with Storage Box
This object is a rare example of a type of luxurious mountings for slung swords (itomaki-tachi), which was restricted to the family of the Shōgun and its closest retainers. Not meant for being worn per se, such mountings were usually commissioned for important ancestral blades that were exchanged as gifts. With its solid gold fittings and embossed gold foiled scabbard, all decorated with the hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa family, the mounting falls within the most opulent category of its type, which was not seen outside of the said circles because of sumptuary laws in effect since the late seventeenth century.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mounting for a Slung Sword (Itomaki-tachi Koshirae) with Storage Box
- Date: ca. 1615–1868; storage box, ca. 1932
- Culture: Japanese
- Medium: Gold, wood, lacquer, leather, textile
- Dimensions: L. 39 1/2 in. (100.3 cm)
- Classification: Sword Furniture
- Credit Line: Gift of Rosemarie and Leighton R. Longhi, in honor of John Carpenter, 2023
- Object Number: 2023.735.6a–e
- Curatorial Department: Arms and Armor
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Omori Hidenaga
18th century
Japanese
late 14th century
Japanese
5th century
Japanese
17th century
Hirata School
ca. 1615–1868
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