Giuseppe Piva
tsu750 Kanshiro Nishigaki 225
Kanshiro Nishigaki (1613-1693)
西垣 勘四郎
A Higo School iron sukashi tsuba
Sword guard in the shape of a of dancing crane
Early Edo Period (1615-1867), 17th century.
Mumei, 80 x 76 x 5 mm
The tsuba features an elegant dancing crane with its wings outspread. The subdued finish exemplifies the highest standard of iron sword guards: the openwork (sukashi) is superb and well balanced, with each feather depicted in fine lines and other areas defined by thick, stout lines. The excellent patina on the jitetsu and the large featured dynamic sukashi pattern produces a very rich and elegant feeling.
This design is well known: a tsuba by Hayashi Matashichi (1613-1699) at the Eisei-Bunko Museum shows the same design and differs only from the sharper treatment of the ironwork.
There are four major Higo schools: Hirata, Hayashi, Nishigaki, and Shimizu; each school’s smiths worked under lord Hosokawa Sansai’s excellent instructions and they produced many fine pieces of tsuba and kodogu. Kanshiro, the first master of Nishigaki school, was the top student under Hirata Hikozo, who was directly employed by the daimyô.
Nishigaki Kanshiro had a special passion for iron which looks like a simple and everyday material. With his deep understanding of this metal and his techniques, he produced works of extreme elegance and beauty: his iron, warmer and more relaxed than that of Hayashi, is the key to understand the difference between this tsuba and that in the Eisei-Bunko.
For more tsuba please visit my website www.giuseppepiva.com
tsu750 Kanshiro Nishigaki 225
Kanshiro Nishigaki (1613-1693)
西垣 勘四郎
A Higo School iron sukashi tsuba
Sword guard in the shape of a of dancing crane
Early Edo Period (1615-1867), 17th century.
Mumei, 80 x 76 x 5 mm
The tsuba features an elegant dancing crane with its wings outspread. The subdued finish exemplifies the highest standard of iron sword guards: the openwork (sukashi) is superb and well balanced, with each feather depicted in fine lines and other areas defined by thick, stout lines. The excellent patina on the jitetsu and the large featured dynamic sukashi pattern produces a very rich and elegant feeling.
This design is well known: a tsuba by Hayashi Matashichi (1613-1699) at the Eisei-Bunko Museum shows the same design and differs only from the sharper treatment of the ironwork.
There are four major Higo schools: Hirata, Hayashi, Nishigaki, and Shimizu; each school’s smiths worked under lord Hosokawa Sansai’s excellent instructions and they produced many fine pieces of tsuba and kodogu. Kanshiro, the first master of Nishigaki school, was the top student under Hirata Hikozo, who was directly employed by the daimyô.
Nishigaki Kanshiro had a special passion for iron which looks like a simple and everyday material. With his deep understanding of this metal and his techniques, he produced works of extreme elegance and beauty: his iron, warmer and more relaxed than that of Hayashi, is the key to understand the difference between this tsuba and that in the Eisei-Bunko.
For more tsuba please visit my website www.giuseppepiva.com