Photographs
Photographs by the seller at origin.
The piece
Unsigned round iron tsuba, pierced with hooks and gourds, attributed to the Kanayama school by an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper.
Unsigned tsuba, attributed by its paper to the Kanayama school of Owari. The kanteisho describes it as 鈎瓢箪透鐔 (kagi hyōtan sukashi tsuba): a guard pierced with hooks and gourds. The design is geometric. Two straight-lined hooks frame the two hitsu-ana, which are built into the openwork, and a gourd above and below joins the centre to the rim. The plate is iron, round (marugata), pierced in positive silhouette (ji-sukashi), with a rounded rim (marumimi). The edge shows the granular texture of the iron that the paper calls tekkotsu (鉄骨). According to the original seller, it measures 7.50 × 7.48 cm, is 0.53 cm thick and weighs 86 g. The photographs show dark, brownish-black iron with a few russet tones inside the openings. No cracks, breaks or active rust are visible. The central opening has sekigane at the top and bottom. The piece comes with an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper, no. 221235, dated 1991. It is kept in an uninscribed paulownia wood box.
Strong points
- NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper, attributed to the Kanayama school
- Clean, balanced geometric openwork of hooks and gourds
- Tekkotsu visible on the rounded rim
- Good condition, with no visible cracks or active rust
Points to bear in mind
- Unsigned: the attribution is to the school, not to a named maker
- The central opening has sekigane
- The dating comes from the original seller; the paper does not give one
Score
55.1 / 100
- Maker 9 of 25 Attributed to a school only
- Workmanship 10 of 20 Good work
- Condition 14 of 18 Good condition
- Period 12 of 12 Muromachi or earlier (before 1573)
- Paper 4 of 10 NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu
- Extras 0 of 5 No complete set by the same maker and no inscribed box
- Price 6.1 of 10 Rank 129 of 330 by price among pieces of its type, from the most affordable to the dearest
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.
Details
- Type
- Tsuba
- School
- Kanayama
- Period
- Muromachi or earlier (before 1573)
- Material
- Iron
- Paper
- NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu
- Signature
- Unsigned (mumei)
- Technique
- Sukashi (openwork)
- Dating
- Late Muromachi – Edo period (16th–17th century)
- Paper number
- 221235
- Paper date
- June 1991
- Attribution on the paper
- 無銘 金山 (mumei Kanayama)