A JINGO SCHOOL TSUBA

Details

A JINGO SCHOOL TSUBA
EARLY EDO PERIOD (CIRCA 1650)

The rounded square iron plate with a well-hammered surface texture is decorated in heavy brass inlay (suemon zogan) with a hawk in an oak tree on the face and a branch of the oak tree and two leaves on the reverse. The plate is pierced with a rectangular aperture (hitsu-ana) typical of the early Jingo masters--height 7.1cm., width 6.8cm., thickness at center 6mm., at edge 5mm.

Double wood storage boxes. Inner box with inscription by Sato Kanzan, dated summer, 1973.

Accompanied by a tokubetsu kicho paper issued by the N.B.T.H.K., no. 164 and dated April 15, 1971. Titled: Kashiwa [no] ki to mokin [no] zu (an oak and rapacious bird) tsuba.

Provenance

John Harding

Literature

L'Arcade Chaumet (1976), no. 37, p. 17.
One Hundred Masterpieces (1992), no. 51.

Lot Essay

For a hawk perched in a pine tree, see Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai (1966), no. 254, p. 255. The hawk, plate form, and hitsu shape are almost identical, and with the exception of the tree which is placed by the pine tree, these similarities may indicate that both were made by the same artist.

Jingo school works depicting the hawk in an oak tree are extremely rare; most examples show the hawk perched in a pine tree.