Omori Terumitsu (1765-circa 1846)

A pair of iron calligraphic tsuba for a daisho (pair of long and short sword)
Edo period (1615-1868), second quarter of the 19th century

A pair of iron calligraphic tsuba for a daisho (pair of long and short sword)
Edo period (1615-1868), second quarter of the 19th century
Boldly chiseled and pierced, the larger tsuba in the form of the character ko (filial piety) and the smaller tsuba in the form of the character chu (loyalty), each signed and inscribed on the front Omori Terumitsu eru; Fujiwara Kunitsugu kore o kitaeru (Chiseled by Omori Terumitsu; forged by Fujiwara Kunitsugu) and on the back Shirakawa Rakuo sho (Calligraphy by Shirakawa Rakuo)
With a wood storage box and a Tokubetsu Hozon Tosogu (Sword Fitting Especially Worthy of Preservation) certificate no. 226840 dated December 18 2003, issued by the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai (Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Art Sword)
The larger tsuba 3 7/8in (9.8cm) high

For a discussion of this pair of tsuba and its choice of the characters ko and chu (filial piety and loyalty), both of them important virtues in late-Edo samurai ideology, see Numata Kenji, Tsuba, kodogu gadai jiten (A Dictionary of Tsuba and Sword-Fitting Motifs), Tokyo, Yuzankaku, 1974, col. 2, p. 440.