Old Tree Design Tsuba: Bushu ju Masachika

寸法

縦71.95ミリ　横69.3ミリ　切羽台厚4.9ミリ

Accessories

桐箱

Weight

重量111.1グラム

As written by the shop

Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors · Show original

Masaichika, whose family name was Kitani and common name was Tomizo, was a metalworker of the Bushu Ito school who was born in Enkyo 3 (1746) and was active until around Kansei 9 (around 1797). He studied under Ito Masatsune and is known as a craftsman who lived in Hottawara, Asakusa, Edo, and signed his mei as "Bushu Ju Masaichika". Among his extant works, tsuba featuring voluminous sukidashibori on tetsu-ji effectively combined with kin-zogan have been confirmed, and both the mei of this piece and the expression of placing the carving of the tetsu-ji as the main focus while restrictively arranging gold match his style well. Old trees are a motif that overlays meanings of longevity and fortitude onto the appearance of surviving many years while enduring wind and snow; since the knots, hollows, and twisting wood grain themselves become the scenery, they are suited to bringing out the strength and deep color tones of iron. Rather than depicting a full view of a tree, this piece employs a bold design that likens the tsuba itself to a single piece of old wood, with complexly undulating wood grain carved over almost the entire surface of the front and back; the flow of the annual rings envelops the seppa-dai and hitsu-ana, and knots appearing in places provide powerful variation and the flavor of passing years to the wood surface, which tends to become monotonous. The wood grain is not arranged mechanically at equal intervals, but is carved as a natural flow that densifies while avoiding knots, diverges, and merges again, while star-shaped and irregularly shaped ko-sukashi create shadows reminiscent of insect damage or decayed hollows. Small grains of kin-zogan are scattered along the wood grain in various places, adding a modest light to the deep blackish-brown tetsu-ji, while a tanzaku-shaped kin-nunome-zogan is placed only on the upper part of the front surface, adding neat straight lines into the fluid wood grain to vividly tighten the composition. On the back surface, this tanzaku-shaped zogan is not used, and the expression of the old wood is shown through the wood grain, knots, ko-sukashi, and scattered kin-zogan, allowing one to enjoy the difference in design by turning it over. The mei "Bushu Ju Masaichika" is carved on the seppa-dai, and the wood grain and knots deeply carved into the voluminous tetsu-ji, along with the sense of color that accurately utilizes a small amount of gold, demonstrate a deep understanding of iron and a refined compositional power characteristic of a Bushu Ito school metalworker. In addition to the interesting concept of transforming the entire tsuba into a piece of old wood, the height of the carving and the brilliance of the zogan shift every time the angle of light changes, and new scenery appears the closer one looks; it is an attractive work that combines the author's individuality with high appreciation value.