Tsuba: Reeds and Two Geese Design, Unsigned -Mumei- 12-1448

寸法

縦75.85ミリ　横68.3ミリ　切羽台厚3.2ミリ

Accessories

桐箱

Weight

重量100.0グラム

As written by the shop

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

Wild geese alighting on a waterside in autumn is a long-cherished motif that evokes the shifting of seasons and a moment of respite during a journey; in this piece, the mokko-gata tetsu-ji is treated as a vast landscape, with a mountain at the upper left, reeds and a shibagaki to the right, and two wild geese placed below, creating a scenery that allows one to pleasantly look across from the distant view to the water's edge within the limited surface of the tsuba. While the two birds suggest a huddling pair, one raises its neck to look around while the other crouches and brings its face toward the water; by combining these different gestures, a familiar vitality dwells within the quiet scene. The soft reddish-brown of the wild geese, which appears to be yamagane, stands out beautifully against the blackish-brown tetsu-hada, and the closer one looks, the richer their expressions become—from the rounded bodies and bent necks to the fine hori of the feathers—while the kin-iroe applied to the legs serves as a small, vivid accent, making their stance at the water's edge even more impressive. The composition is also skillful, placing the two birds together at the bottom beneath a wide yohaku rather than carving them large to assert their presence; the shibusa of the tetsu-ji leads directly into the clear air and the stillness of the waterside, and depending on the viewing angle or the light, the figures of the geese suddenly emerge. The mountain at the upper left is placed in the distance with restrained lines, while on the right, reeds interspersed with kin-iroe extend their thin stalks and leaves to convey the presence of the wind, and the shibagaki depicted further beyond gives a faint sense of human activity; thus, it is viewed not merely as a depiction of birds, but as a single scene visiting a riverside in a mountain village. Moving one's gaze from the reeds at the upper right to the two birds below and back to the mountain, the vastness of the yohaku and the delicacy of the motifs are in balance, offering the pleasure of finding new movement within the silence each time one circles the surface. The ura-men takes the flow of a river as its theme, with gentle hori suggestive of water veins running across the tetsu-ji, interspersed with dots of kin-iroe reminiscent of pebbles, adding a charm as if depicting the movement of the water where the geese rest on the omote from a different angle. The way the small glimmers of gold are scattered over the dark tetsu-hada possesses a lingering resonance suggestive of the moment light touches stones on the riverbed or reflections swaying in the current; turning it over to the ura after viewing the omote, one realizes that the atmosphere of the same riverside continues even without depicting the birds. Linking the mountain, reeds, shibagaki, two wild geese, and the river on the back as a single landscape, this piece—where the black tetsu-ji tightens the warm color of the geese (likely yamagane) and the kin-iroe modestly scattered on the legs, grass, and waterside—is a work that offers a handsome autumn scene from a distance and a repeated appreciation of the detailed gestures and irogane work in hand; if fitted to a koshirae, it adds a calm seasonal feeling, and if presented for appreciation, it allows one to thoroughly enjoy the story that continues from omote to ura.