Existing comment:
Sword Guards (Tsuba)
17th and 18th centuries
Like other craftsmen, the makers of tsuba belongs to many different schools. When fashions changed, some tsuba makers would proudly stick to the traditions of their teachers; others would proudly stick to the traditions of their teachers; others would adapt to demand, even tot he point of inscribing the false signature of a famed craftsman. Forgeries may be contemporary, or they may be later, made for 19th-century collectors. For all these reasons, the study of tsuba is a battleground nearly as dangerous as the actual sword blades.
In one early type of sword guard (1-2), the surface of the tsuba is used as a ground for a overall pattern of flowers, with every part having an equal weight. In another early type (3-4) the approach is entirely different: a miniature landscape appears on the tsuba. Even within this small frame, it is possible to suggest great distances. In the 19th century limitations of this type were produced using an antique iron body.
The majority of 16th- and 17th-century tsuba were openwork iron, and this tradition continued into the 18th century, but with an increased interest in detail and in complex, delicate rhythms (5)--rhythms that can also characterize inlaid work (6).
In the first half of the 18th century, several well-known craftsmen started to produce engraved copper or copper allow tsuba, sometimes combined with relief work (7-9). In the best of these, the engraved line swells and narrows like brushed ink.
Another 18th-century development was of pictorial carved openwork tsuba (11-12), in which the negative, openwork spaces are a powerful component of the design. |