Japanese Tsuba - Sentoku Katana guard - Hyotan design - Nara school - Edo period

DESCRIPTION: Squarred MOKKO GATA a four lobes TSUBA form for TANTO or WAKIZASHI size. The web is finely decorated with great details and quality with HYOTAN a bottle gourd and a treillis of vines leaves and fruts growing over it, and dots of dew on the leaves. Very fine crisp carving throughout with great details. A branch with leave on the reverse giving an overall impression of massiveness especially against the uniformly polished background. TECHNIQUE The surface is deeply incised and carved in delicate manner with accurate details in IROE TAKAZOGAN a high relief modelling, and finely applied in SHIBUICHI, gold, SHAKUDO and touch of silver. Much of the web carving is higher than the rim or the SEPPAI DAI. The entire guard has a rustic appearance, the plate is in excellent condition, no signs of any damage, and this fine masterpiece has a reddish colour. SIGNATURE/SCHOOL Unsigned NARA school PERIOD/ORIGIN Middle EDO period 18/19th Century Japan COMMENTS If the artist's intention in showing only attributes and or associated things was to let us guess and imagine a main subject. The design is expressed with great strength and beauty, the great flexibility in the shape of flowers, leaves and petals is successfully displayed here. A work of a quite high quality, in very high relief delicately carved. So splendid details mangify the beauty of this design. These flowers placed on the plate are neither naïve nor plain, they represent a kind of ultimate, a beauty that is not however severe. On the contrary, it has a faintly gentle mood evocative of a sense of the compassion of the warrior. MATERIAL/SIZE SENTOKU An alloy of copper, tin, lead and zinc used to imitate Chinese bronze 53 x 43 mm CONDITION Basically in decent condition considering the age. See the detailed photos or email me for more info.