A YANAGAWA SCHOOL TSUBA

Details

A YANAGAWA SCHOOL TSUBA
EDO PERIOD (CIRCA 1780), SIGNED YANAGAWA NAOHARU ISEN NOBUSHU IN HITSU (AFTER A PAINTING BY ISEN NOBUSHU).

The rectangular trapezoid form shakudo tsuba has a polished surface and is decorated in low relief and inlaid in gold with a dragon ascending Mt. Fuji. The reverse is decorated in kebori and inlaid in silver, with the reflection of a snow-capped Mt. Fuji in the waters of Lake Ashi--height 6.1cm., width 5.1cm., thickness 3.75mm.

Provenance

Glendining & Co., London, July 1965, lot 491.

Lot Essay

Yanagawa Naoharu (b. 1750) was the son of Yanagawa Naomasa and the third master of the main line of the Yanagawa school. He was a retainer of the Yoshida family, daimyo of Mikawa. The painter Isen Nobushu is unknown today.