Sword guard (Tsuba) With Flower Basket Motif (花籠透鐔)

Fittings maker 石黒政明 Ishiguro Masaaki Japanese

first half 19th century

Not on view

This is the larger guard (tsuba) of a pair of sword guards that is the product of a collaboration among three artists. Ishiguro Masaaki (石黒政明, born 1813) crafted it after a smaller guard (19.71.6) of the same design to create a matching set for the traditional pair of swords worn by a samurai . It features an extraordinary openwork design of a flower basket whose quatrefoil rim is decorated with a Greek-style key pattern inlaid in gold. The smaller guardm for the wakizashi, was made by father and son Hagiya Katsuhira (萩谷勝平, 1804–1886) and Suzuki Katsuhiro (鈴木勝容, 1827–1886) in 1860.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Sword guard (Tsuba) With Flower Basket Motif (花籠透鐔)
Fittings maker: 石黒政明 Ishiguro Masaaki (Japanese, active 19th century)
Date: first half 19th century
Culture: Japanese
Medium: Iron, copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), gold, silver, copper
Dimensions: H. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm); W. 3 in. (7.6 cm); thickness 1/4 in. (0.6 cm); Wt. 4.1 oz. (116.2 g)
Classification: Sword Furniture-Tsuba
Credit Line: Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund, 1919
Object Number: 19.71.7
Curatorial Department: Arms and Armor

More Artwork

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Sword guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) With Flower Basket Motif (花籠透鐔), 萩谷勝平 Hagiya Katsuhira Japanese, Iron, copper-silver alloy (<i>shibuichi</i>), gold, silver, copper, Japanese — Sword guard (*Tsuba*) With Flower Basket Motif (花籠透鐔)
Fittings maker 萩谷勝平 Hagiya Katsuhira
Fittings maker 鈴木勝容 Suzuki Katsuhiro
1860

Armor (<i>Gusoku</i>), Saotome Ietada Japanese, Iron, lacquer, silk, gilt copper, Japanese — Armor (*Gusoku*)
Armorer Helmet bowl signed Saotome Ietada
Armorer Breastplate inscribed inside, Myōchin Munesuke
16th and 18th centuries

Sword Guard (Tsuba), Iron, gold, silver, copper, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper-tin alloy (speculum), Japanese — Sword Guard (Tsuba)
Japanese
first half 19th century

Koto (箏), Various woods, ivory, metal, nylon, tortoiseshell, abalone, lacquerwork, Japanese — Koto (箏)
Japanese
20th century

Sword Guard (Tsuba), Iron, gold, silver, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper, Japanese — Sword Guard (Tsuba)
Japanese
ca. 1860

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