NH-0554 Rank 129
Tsuba · Matsuyama Shōami Moritomi
盛富 (Matsuyama Shōami Moritomi)
Iron tsuba with a corroded ground, a frog in high relief beside gold susuki grasses and an inlaid stream, signed by Moritomi of the Matsuyama Shōami school. Tokubetsu Hozon paper.
Photographs
Photographs by the seller at origin.
Description
A tatemaru-gata tsuba signed 松山正阿弥盛富 (Matsuyama Shōami Moritomi) with his kaō, the work of a kinkō of the Shōami branch settled in Matsuyama, Iyo province. The original seller places his activity around the Bunka and Bunsei eras (1804–1829). The iron plate has a deliberately corroded, granular surface (yakite kusarashi-ji) suggesting marshy ground by the water. On the front, an applied frog in high relief, with a gold eye and finely chiselled skin, looks up at blades of susuki grass inlaid in gold; below runs a stream drawn in pale metal wire. Further gold grasses continue on the reverse. The rim is square and thin (kaku-mimi ko-niku). The photographs show a dark, stable patina with no active rust, the gold intact and slight wear to the wires of the stream. The NBTHK paper, Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu, no. 2008878, dated October 2022, records the signature and accepts it.
Strong points
- Signed with kaō, signature accepted by the paper
- NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper (2022)
- Well-modelled frog in high relief on a kusarashi ground
- Gold inlays intact on both faces
- The frog, an auspicious motif in Japan
Points to bear in mind
- The alloy of the frog cannot be identified with certainty from the photographs
- Slight wear to the inlaid wires of the stream
- The maker's working dates come from the original seller, not from the paper
Score breakdown
59.5/100
The score shares out 100 points: Maker 25 · Workmanship 20 · Condition 18 · Period 12 · Paper 10 · Extras 5 · Price 10. It is computed from the record, not from an opinion. Maker, workmanship, condition and period are judged from the photographs and the paper; price is compared only with fittings of the same type.
- Maker 19 of 25 Genuine signature of a known maker or school
- Workmanship 10 of 20 Good work
- Condition 14 of 18 Good condition
- Period 5 of 12 Late Edo (1781–1868)
- Paper 4 of 10 NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu
- Extras 0 of 5 No complete set by the same maker and no inscribed box
- Price 7.5 of 10 Rank 58 of 228 by price among pieces of its type, from the most affordable to the dearest