Description

Tsuba Signed; Nobuie Hyotan (Gourd) motif Tetsu-ji with kebori Circa: Late Muromachi period (16th century) Provenance; Ex Akiyama Kyusaku collection An outstanding Nobuie Tsuba from the collection of Mr. Nick Nakamura. This tsuba was published in the 17th Kokusai Tosogu Kai catalogue in 2021. It is accompanied by custom fitted kiri bako and a hand-made bag with hand-made slik ties. Mr. Nakamura's calligraphy is on the wooden tag and there an inventory tag attached. Please enjoy Mr. Nakamura's description below from the KTK publication. A copy of the book is included with the tsuba. There is a legendary theory about Nobuie, as follows. He was the head of the Myochin Family of armor smiths in the seventeenth generation. His name at first was Yasuie, but he changed it to Nobuie when he, moving from Kyoto to Fuchu in Kai province, came to work for Takeda Shingen ruling the province, who allowed him to use the first character of the name Shingen, Nobu being a Japanese-style pronunciation of the Chinese character Shin. He was specialized in making armors, and tsuba making was a hobby for him. This theory, however, cannot be accepted as totally true. Moreover, it is still to be studied whether the armor-smith Nobuie and the tsuba maker Nobuie were the same person. There were several Nobuies’ in various localities, their ages ranging from the latest part of the Muromachi period to as late as the Edo period. Besides the tsubas by Nobuie of Kai province, there are ones with inscriptions that they were made by Nobuie of Kazusa, Suruga and Aki provinces respectively, and of Kaga and Owari provinces and of Akasaka in Edo in later periods. These tsubas, though varied in age and skill, show a style common among in them, which may be called the Nobuie style. Nobuie tsubas have been highly prized since olden times both by tsuba collectors and sword lovers. This was not only because they were fine in the quality of well-hammered iron and tasteful in the simple but refined designs, but also because, according to men of the samurai period, they could match swords of mountings of any form or design. In this work, the maru-gata, uchikaeshi-mimi is wide with a harmonious kitae-mon appears on the surface. The flat ground is modestly represented by kebori, and it has a delicate jihada finish. The expression of the decimal constellation is splendid, and the constellation pattern is inlaid flat with gold in the shibuichi ground, and further distance constellation with shakudo hira-zogan is inlayed in shibuichi ground. The expression of the perspective constellation is splendid. The kogai-ana is filled with an orderly nanako-ji on a silver ground. It is a work that is splendid with elegance.

Details from the shop

Dimensions

80.0 mm (h), 78.0 mm (w), 5.0 mm (mimi), 4.0 mm (seppa-dai)