Lot 123
123
AN EARLY KO-MINO TSUBA

Details
AN EARLY KO-MINO TSUBA
MUROMACHI PERIOD (CIRCA 1500)

The round shakudo nanako plate is decorated in typical Muromachi-period style in low relief with gold accents in sheet gold (uttori) inlay depicting large branches of spring flowers, each a different type, and a large insect placed at the top of the plate on both sides--height and width 8.1cm., thickness at center 3mm., at edge 4mm.

Double wood storage boxes. Inner box with inscription by Sato Kanzan, dated early summer, 1966.

Accompanied by a tokubetsu kicho certificate issued by the N.B.T.H.K., no. 139.
Provenance
Joseph Seo
Literature
L'Arcade Chaumet (1976), no. 11, p. 7.
One Hundred Masterpieces (1992), no. 67.

Lot Essay

This is a masterpiece of the early Mino style. Although individual artists of this school did not sign their names and are unknown, their work has such a consistency of subject matter, feeling, and quality that the type of tsuba remained in fashion for over two hundred years.