Tsuba: Mumei (Kinai)

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

This was a leading school of metalwork engravers from the early to the late Edo period that was active in Echizen. The first generation was of the Ishikawa clan and applied engravings to the swords of Echizen smiths such as Echizen Yasutsugu, and is said to have signed with the mei "Kiuchi" or "Kinai". The second generation was of the Takahashi clan and produced many sukashi tsuba, and the school continued for seven generations primarily making tsuba. The tsuba produced by the greatly prospering Kinai school were prized and called "Kinai-bori" or "Echizen-bori". They were particularly skilled at depicting dragons, and several masterpieces can be seen among tsuba with dragons as the subject. In other works, they took up various subjects such as autumn grasses, chrysanthemums, and other plants, but works with people or landscapes as subjects are few, and they also had interactions through forming matrimonial relations with the Myochin and Akao families. Although this tsuba is mumei, it shows polite work and skillfully carves an aoi design characteristic of Kinai-bori.