This special and highly aesthetic Mokume-Gane Tsuba had been treated by means of acid to bring out the characteristic forging structure. The technique had been taught by the two Hoan generations Kawaguchi Saburoemon and Hoan Kanenobu to the Kishu Teimei group. The name Teimei can also be read as Sadanaga.
This very piece is by all means the best Teimei we have seen so far. Big and strong with a well balanced design of five Matsukawa Bishi which is said to show sparks or diamonds in a variation of conventionalised shapes of pine bark.
The well forged iron plate shows great Sukashi openwork and leaves enough large areas of iron to demonstrate the beauty of the Mokume-Gane Tsuba technique.
Some experts think that the Kishu Teimei masters worked their tsuba not only for the Tokugawa clan of Wakayama but also for the many land owning farmers on the Kii peninsula that also had been fighting as mercenaries for the warlords or temples that had been able to pay them. Of course this only had been possible until the beginning of the more or less peaceful Edo period.
H: 8.3 cm
W: 8.3 cm
R: 0.4 cm
Sd: 0.4 cm
Find more examples of the Hoan school here: Hoan and Kishu Teimei Tsuba
