Description

ARIYOSHI NTHK KANTEISHO (papers) 2.625″ X 2.25″ Absolutely stunning tsuba depicting Ume (Plum) or Sakura (Cherry) blossoms draped gracefully over the mimi. I am offering both options as I am tired of being informed one way or the other about which it is. Let me be clear, I don’t care which blossom type they are. It is irrelevant. When you purchase it call it whatever you like. What is important and what the focus should be here is the quality of the work, which is outstanding. The blossoms are draped over a dark, rich blue-black nanako background. A fine example which completely sums up the reference to the “iridescent blue-black of a crow’s feathers”, of high quality shakudo. Without a doubt this tsuba was made with the highest quality Shakudo. The Nanko ground is exquisite being perfectly executed. The NTHK attributed this tsuba to Dewa Ariyoshi 在珍 (H. 00147.0) who according to Haynes, was a student of Yasuchika (H 11104.0), of the Tsuchiya school. According to Sesko (2011), Ariyoshi was most likely the Rokudai Arichika working c. 1866. Both the Shodai Arichika and Yasuchika were contemporaries who were trained under Nara Tatsumasa and Chinkyu (Yoshihisa). Tatsumasa and Chinkyu were students of Nara Toshiharu, founder of the Tsuchiya school. This tsuba came out of an estate of a deceased gentleman who lived-in post-war Japan in the 1950’s. He owned an antique shop and imported many tsuba along with other Japanese art. This tsuba was purchased in Tokyo around 1952 and while he bought and sold many items there were a few pieces he coveted and retained in his personal collection of only 5-6 tsuba, this was one of them.