Tsuneshige was a metal artist of the Nara school who specialized in working with Sentoku. He was a student of Kawamura Shigetsugu and lived in the Kanda district of Edo. His birth name was Ichi’emon, and he initially signed his works under the name Sekiguchi Masayoshi. Tsuneshige primarily crafted tsuba, often characterized by their simple yet distinctive designs. A key feature of his work was square-shaped brass Tsuba with Uchikaeshi-mimi (folded-back rim) and Shishiaibori decorations. His works displayed remarkable clarity in engraving while his style could be regarded as repetitive using mostly Sentoku plates with Ishime ground. His designs were often inspired by the traditional aesthetics of the Nara school, yet they stood out for their more robust and less refined execution. In his book Chokindan which focusses on the Nara school, Kano Natsuo points out that Tsuneshige’s focus lay on quantity over quality. Nevertheless, he was a well-known and prolific artist, many pieces of whom have survived to this day.
The Tsuba here displays a design called ‘Taikobo’ (a fat fisherman) which refers to a famous historical and mythological figure from China (Jiang Ziya). He is a popular figure in Japanese art and literature and a symbolises wisdom, patience, and divine strategy. In Japanese art, he is often depicted as an old, slightly chubby man sitting with a fishing rod, an image representing wise waiting and strategic restraint.
This piece is made from Sentoku with an Ishime ground and gold inlaid highlights. What makes this Tsuba more rare among the works of Tsuneshige is the rim which is made half from Shakudo and half from silver, the two different metals meeting at the top and bottom of the Tsuba forming a diagonal line.
Comes with an NBTHK Hozon Certificate and a standard wooden box.
Size:
H: 74 mm
W: 69 mm
R: 5.5 mm
Sd: 5 mm
