NH-0667 Rank 230
Tsuba · Kyō-sukashi
Unsigned pierced iron tsuba with a tokei-mon design, attributed by the paper to the Kyō-sukashi school of Kyoto. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper.
Photographs
Photographs by the seller at origin.
Description
Unsigned iron tsuba attributed by its NBTHK paper to the Kyō-sukashi (京透) school, the openwork workshops of Kyoto. The paper names the design tokei-mon sukashi (時圭文透): worked in ji-sukashi (地透), a toothed ring with stepped profiles is joined by spokes to the oval seppa-dai and to a rounded maru-mimi (丸耳) rim, with two lobed openings at the sides. The photographs show clean, even piercing with fine, well-proportioned lines, and iron with a uniform black patina and no visible active rust; the seppa-dai has a slightly granular, old and stable surface, and the copper sekigane in the central opening are retained. According to the original seller it measures 8.11 × 8.02 cm, 0.47 cm thick, weighs 77 g, and comes in a paulownia wood box. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu (特別保存刀装具) paper, no. 2002615, dated 8 July 2015, describing it as maru-gata (丸形), tetsu-ji (鉄地) and mumei (無銘).
Strong points
- NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper (no. 2002615, 2015)
- Attributed to the Kyō-sukashi school of Kyoto
- Clean, even ji-sukashi openwork with a tokei-mon design
- Iron with a stable black patina, no visible active rust
- Paulownia wood box
Points to bear in mind
- Unsigned: the paper attributes it to a school, not to a maker
- The paper gives no period; the Edo dating comes from the original seller and from style
- Copper sekigane in the central opening (customary)
- Slightly granular surface on the seppa-dai
Score breakdown
54.5/100
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 9 of 25 Attributed to a school only
- Workmanship 10 of 20 Good work
- Condition 14 of 18 Good condition
- Period 9 of 12 Early Edo (1615–1688)
- Paper 4 of 10 NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu
- Extras 0 of 5 No complete set by the same maker and no inscribed box
- Price 8.5 of 10 Rank 34 of 228 by price among pieces of its type, from the most affordable to the dearest