Tsuba: Yabase Return Sailboats Design - Jakushi

寸法

縦86.0ミリ　横80.3ミリ　切羽台厚4.3ミリ

Accessories

桐箱

Weight

重量140.0グラム

As written by the shop

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

Wakashiba is a lineage of tsubako who look to Kawamura Wakashiba, a painter-monk and painter active in Nagasaki during the early Edo period who was also known as a sword fitting metalworker, as their founder. It is said that Kawamura Wakashiba studied painting under the Obaku monk Itsunen in Nagasaki and excelled at figures and landscapes influenced by Chinese painting, while learning metalworking techniques from the immigrant monk Mokuan Shoto. This style was passed down to later generations, and craftsmen using the name Wakashiba continued for generations. Many Wakashiba tsuba use a corrosion technique called kusarakashi on the tetsu-ji to create undulations like usuniku-bori, combined with sukisage and fine nunome-zogan, and they are known for themes imbued with the flavor of Chinese painting, such as sansui jinbutsu-zu, take-zu, and unryu-zu. This work is a tsuba depicting the scene of "Yabase Kihan," one of the Omi Hakkei, on a slightly vertical and large-sized tetsu-ji mokko-gata. The overall dimensions are a grand 86.0 mm in length and 80.3 mm in width, with a contour gently projecting in four directions and hitsu-ana arranged on the left and right, possessing a moderate sense of volume with a seppa-dai thickness of 4.3 mm and a weight of 140 grams. Overlapping distant mountains are placed at the top of the omote, and four sailing ships float on the water surface below them. It is thought to be based on the scene of ships heading from Yabase to Otsu returning in the evening, with gold and silver zogan interspersed on the sails and hulls, adding small glints of light within the distant view. By placing a large mountain foot as the Chikakage at the bottom and depicting two figures traveling on the path between them, a three-tiered composition of distant mountains, sailing ships on the lake, and travelers in the foreground is created, organizing a landscape with depth within the limited surface of the tsuba. On the ura, distant mountains at the top and nearby mountains at the bottom are concisely arranged, showing a spacious landscape world continuous from the lake scene on the omote; there is no breakdown in the composition which is conscious of perspective, well conveying the atmosphere of the Chinese sansui-ga style in which the Wakashiba lineage excelled.