Plum in bloom -
The moonbeam of a passerby teases:
break off the branch!
Issa
The oldest technique for decorating tsuba is the openwork through carving, called sukashi, or cut work. This processing technique was used a very long time ago, even on the early tsubas, made of only iron. They were made long before the Muromachi era, but even then, if a samurai suddenly wanted to stand out with his "ancient tsuba", he could well order himself an antique tsuba. Moreover, slotted tsubas were made at first not just for the sake of beauty, but for a purely practical purpose to reduce its weight. Well, then it became fashionable, it became a tribute to tradition. Its own terminology has also appeared. So, tsubas with a through pattern were called sukashi-tsuba. And there were also tsuba ko-sukashi - if the cut pattern was small or had a simple shape. If, on the contrary, there was a lot of emptiness in the tsuba, and the image itself was distinguished by its complexity, then it was ji-sukashi - "carved surface". The cut-out pattern on the tsuba itself could have been supplemented with engraving - why not? Or inlaid … Everything here depended on the master's imagination and the wishes of the customer. The drawing of ito-bitches was made with a file and was sometimes very thin, like metal lace.
Iron tsuba stylized as a chrysanthemum flower. Production time: XVI century. Material: iron, copper. Diameter: 10.2 cm; thickness 0.8 cm; weight 189, 9. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Tsuba "Geese under the Moon in the Clouds". Production time: early XVIII - early XIX century. Material: iron, gold, silver, copper, shakudo. Diameter: 7.9 cm; thickness 0.6 cm; weight 104, 9 g (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
The Japanese cannot imagine their life without sakura flowers. Sakura blossom days are a holiday for the whole country. Moreover, the custom of admiring cherry blossoms is very ancient. Of course, it seems to be wiser to worship plants that bear fruit useful to people. For example, pumpkin or corn. However, the flowering of the inedible cherry was of paramount importance to the Yamato peasants. After all, it preceded the earing of rice and if it was lush, the peasants counted on a rich harvest. There was another reason that the poet Issa expressed in verse:
There are no strangers between us!
We are all brothers to each other
Under the cherry blossoms.
Agree that these words are filled with deep meaning. And… is it any wonder that the images of cherry blossoms in different techniques were constantly reproduced on tsubas. Including the sukashi technique …
Tsuba "Sakura in Bloom". Production time: approx. 1615-1868 Material: iron, copper. Width 7.6 cm; length 5, 4 cm; thickness 0.6 cm; weight 121, 9 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Another sukashi tsuba. Production time: approx. 1615-1868 Material: iron, copper. Width 7, 9 cm; length 7.6 cm; thickness 0.5 cm; weight 119, 1 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The same tsuba, reverse.
Some tsuba made in the sukashi style resembled the most real metal lace. There were leaves, twigs, flowers, insects, in a word, the surface of the tsuba was a real picture, though one-color. Production time: approx. 1615-1868 Material: iron, copper. Diameter 7, 3 cm; thickness 0.5 cm; weight 90, 7 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Tsuba "Heron". Production time: approx. 1615-1868 Material: iron, copper. Length 8, 3 cm; width 7, 9 cm; thickness 0.5 cm; weight 90, 7 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
In some slotted tsubas, the slot itself, so that it does not depict, was very often supplemented with other techniques. For example, here is a very simple and uncomplicated tsuba "Parus". On it, the silhouette of a sail in the noticeable right side is given by a slit. But the ropes going to the mast are inlaid with gold, just like a piece of mast and yards. Production time: XVIII century. Material: iron, gold, copper, bronze. Diameter 8, 3 cm; thickness 0.3 cm; weight 119, 1 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Tsuba (obverse), signed by the master Imam Matsuoishi (1764 - 1837). It shows Sojobo, the demon lord tengu, sitting on a cypress tree, holding a fan of feathers, watching what happens on the reverse - the reverse side. Material: copper, gold. Length 9 cm; width 8.3 cm; 0.4 cm thick. (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
The reverse side (reverse) of the same tsuba, and on it is an engraved drawing on which the legendary Yoshitsune, a warrior of the late Heian period, the son and half-brother of powerful warriors, learns to wield a sword from the winged demons of tengu.
Metal engraving was also very popular. The tsuboko craftsmen used hori and bori engraving techniques with tools such as a tagane chisel and a yasuri file. There were many types of metal engraving that can be seen on various tsubas.
• First of all, it is a thin, "hairy" engraving with strokes - ke-bori.
• Engraving with a V-shaped cutter that leaves the same groove - katakiri-bori. Sometimes this engraving was called "brush drawing" (efu-bori). After all, the cutter could be placed at different angles and receive grooves of different depths and widths. Master Somin of the Yokoya School was very familiar with this type of engraving.
• Tinkin-bori - a technique in which the engraved line was filled with gold amalgam.
• Niku-bori - a technique in which deep engraving took place, and the work was carried out with a hammer. There were many types of such techniques, which made it possible to achieve sculptural relief, that is, to remove the metal around the figure to a considerable depth. That is, there were varieties of engraving in low, medium and high reliefs.
• But the most original guri-bori carving technique was again borrowed from China during the Muromachi era. In the case when it was precisely such a deep engraving that was ordered, the workpiece for the tsuba was forged in a hot way from several plates of multi-colored metal. Multi-colored layers turned out. After that, a V-shaped pattern of curls was cut into the surface and it turned out that this pattern exposed the layers of metals under the surface of the tsuba!
Tsuba with patterns using the guri-bori technique. Production time: 1615-1868 Material: silver, shakudo, copper. Length 6.5 cm; width 6, 2 mm; thickness 0.6 cm; weight 104, 9 g (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Tsuba with patterns using the guri-bori technique. Production time: 1615-1868 Material: shakudo, copper, silver. Length 6, 4 cm; width 5, 9 mm; thickness 0.5 cm; weight 82, 2 g (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
By the way, tsuba were known and were created using three different metals, connected in a plate not according to the principle "one on top of the other", but just "one after the other." For example, the top section could be made of a tin-zinc alloy known as sentoku. The middle part is made of red copper, and the lower part is made of a shakudo alloy, which contains copper, gold and silver. The resulting colored line stripes represent a stream. Well, maple leaves, a symbol of autumn, adorn the obverse of the tsuba, and on the reverse - engraved sakura flowers represent spring. Cherry and maple leaves are also two of the most iconic seasonal symbols for the Japanese and often appear together on tsubah as decoration.
Tsuba, signed by the master Hamano Noriyuki, with a ji surface made of three metal strips bound together. Production time: between 1793 and 1852 Material: copper, gold, silver, sentoku, shakudo. Length 8, 3 cm; width 7, 1 mm; thickness 0.4 cm. (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
Lamination techniques were also very popular among Japanese craftsmen. In this case, many sheets of multi-colored metals were interconnected, and it was believed that the desired number of such layers should reach … 80! The resulting multi-layer "sandwich" could then be engraved, deep or not too deep carving, which again made it possible to obtain an amazing pattern of the surface "wood-like". And nothing had to be painted! “Woody layers” or the natural color of the layers that allowed them to stand out on top of each other. This technique was called mokume-gane, that is, "wooden surface".
Often, the surface of such a "sandwich" was etched with acids, which made it possible to obtain relief of different depths (different acids of different concentrations had different effects on different metals and alloys!), Which again created an indescribable range of colors and … ensured the play of light and shade on the surface of the tsuba. That is, in fact, we are dealing with something like painting on metal, because there is simply no other way to say it!
Tsubako craftsmen also used casting (imono) on a wax model (horn), and both the whole tsuba and their parts could be cast; chasing (uchidashi) - with its help small parts were made, for example, flower petals; and even such a technique as cloisonné enamel (shippo-yaki), unknown in Japan until the beginning of the 17th century.
Tsuba with enamel and gold inlay. Production time: XVII century. Materials: gold, copper, cloisonné enamel. Length 6.5 cm; width 5, 4 cm; thickness 0.5 cm; weight 82, 2 g (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
The latest technique of Japanese craftsmen is chemical staining and patination. For example, iron tsubas were dyed by blacksmithing, they could also be gilded using mercury amalgam (ginkesi-dzogan technique). All of them were used very widely, since Japan is not at all rich in deposits of precious metals and they had to be protected. Japanese craftsmen have learned to achieve a very durable patina on their products and the same tsubah, but nevertheless they should be cleaned with great care, or even not cleaned at all!
