At the festive table
in a familiar way the cat sat down -
spend the old year …
Issa
Different peoples, different civilizations, different cultures … And cats everywhere sit with their owners at the table in the same way, both on holidays and on weekdays. My current cat, for example, has its own stool at the kitchen table and sits on it, curious: "What are you eating!" And he doesn’t ask. Food in two bowls of her choice awaits her on the floor. And before her there was a cat who ate from the corner of the table … semolina and condensed milk. Cats do not eat this, it is bad for them !!! Yes, probably, she only lived for 19, 5 years - for cats, the period is more than decent …
"Pheasant and Chrysanthemums". Tsuba, signed by Tsubako Master Goto Mitsuakira, c. 1816-1856 The entire surface is decorated using the nanako technique. Material: shakudo, gold, silver, copper. Length 7 cm; width 6.5 cm; thickness 0.8 cm; weight 124, 7 g (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
The same tsuba - reverse.
Well, this introduction, like the epigraph, once again shows that for all our dissimilarity, we people, “all from the same ship,” equally love, equally hate … Although the natural geographic conditions left a very strong imprint on their cultures. For the Japanese, such a consequence of living on their islands was extreme minimalism in everything, and above all in art.
It also manifested itself in the skill of the blacksmiths tsubako. The technologies they owned were numerous, they mastered them perfectly, but … at the same time, they all boiled down to one main goal, how to maximize the experience with a minimum of means. Moreover, they had to work in the same way as they had to live. Namely, in "completely extreme conditions." We have already talked about the life of the Japanese among the mountains, impenetrable bamboo thickets, swamps and mountain rivers, as well as typhoons, volcanic eruptions and daily earthquakes. However, the Tsubako masters were just as difficult. The fact is that they needed to create a "talking picture" on a piece of metal of a very limited size. Moreover, there were also holes on it. So the image on the tsuba was seriously limited in area. Well, there would be only one hole for the blade on it, otherwise there are as many as three at once, and of a quite certain size. And also it was impossible to occupy the surface of the seppadai. That is, in principle (if you do not take any exotic type of tsuba), the only thing left for the master was that the dZi space, which was located just between the seppadai and mimi, was the edge of the tsuba.
Of course, one could "go over the edge", make a "shapeless" tsuba (and we have already seen such in previous issues of the cycle), but … all this is atypical. "Typically" it was like this: here is the edge, here are the holes for the blade, kogaya and kozuki and … rejoice master, demonstrate your skills.
Irregularly shaped tsuba with the image of a dragon. Deliberately rough hammered surface. Production time: XVIII century. Material: iron, gold. Length: 10.8 cm; width 9.8 cm (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The same tsuba - reverse.
That is why it was the technique of tsuba surface treatment that was so important to the Japanese. That is, again - "I have everything, like everyone else, the tsuba is the most traditional and simple, but the technology of its design is such that I … the very best, I can even afford that!"
So, what techniques of tsub surface treatment did the Japanese tsubako masters use to create their little masterpieces?
• The simplest was the mikagi technique - it is a simple polished surface, but the Japanese did not like it too much.
• The technique of hari ("needle") is more, so to speak, Japanese. Its essence is that the surface treated in this way looked as if it had been pierced with a needle.
• The surface of the naxi (“pear”) was covered with fine and uniform roughness.
• Gozame (straw mat ) - a surface that resembles weaving from straw.
• Technique kokuin ("seal") provided for stamping patterns on a hot surface.
• Very popular and beloved by the Japanese was the surface of the tsuchime ("hammer"), that is, bearing traces of forging.
• Yakite-sitate ("firing") - the surface was specially melted.
• Ishime ("stone grain"), that is, processing like a stone, and in many variants, each of which had its own name.
That is, isime can be very different and each time a new surface is obtained.
• For example, chirimen-isime is when the surface of the metal looks like a wrinkled cloth.
• Hari-isime - "a surface pierced by a needle."
• Kava-isime - "kava" means skin. Consequently, the appearance of the surface looks like it is made of leather.
• But the skin is different. So, gama-isime - imitates toad skin.
• Tsuchi-isime - a surface bearing the marks of a hammer.
• Tsuya-isime - a surface bearing marks from a sharp chisel, and the grooves should shine.
• Orekuchi-isime, on the other hand, has a blunt chisel surface.
• Gozame-isime - braided surface.
Tsuba-mokko, decorated using the nanako technique. (Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, England)
The most impressive, however, is the nanako or "fish caviar" technique, also known in India and France, but nowhere reaching such heights as in Japan. It was rarely used on iron (and it will be clear why later!), But on tsubas made of soft metals it can be seen very often. Its essence is to cover the entire surface of the tsuba with very small protuberances, resembling half of fish eggs. For this, there was a special puncher-stamp, on which the master repeatedly hit with a hammer and thus “covered” with these hemispheres the entire surface he needed. Moreover, their diameter could be from 0.2 to 1 mm. The nanako themselves could cover the entire surface of the tsuba, walk along it in stripes, and also occupy squares or rhombuses with sharply outlined edges.
A very rare tsuba cup, reminiscent of the European rapier cup. Inside view. Production time: XVIII century. Material: iron, lacquer, gold, silver, copper. Diameter: 7.8 cm; thickness 1, 7 cm; weight 56, 7 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
According to the Japanese, this is a very sophisticated, albeit simple, way to design a tsub. Therefore, he was considered worthy of the rich samurai.
For the cheaper nanako, one stamp was used. For dear ones - as many as three. The first was the hemisphere, the second - it deepened, and, finally, the third stamp, the sharpest, was used to obtain a well-defined edge. But there were thousands of such hemispheres on the tsuba, and all were applied to the eye!
Especially for daimyo in the 17th century. they came up with a design style for tsuba, the very name of which emphasized its purpose - daimyo-nanako. In this style, on the tsubah, rows of nanako stripes alternated with stripes of polished metal.
The nanakin technique was also used, when the surface was covered with gold foil and the perforator worked on the gilded surface. But the Japanese would not be Japanese if only that would satisfy them. No, the gilded surface was also etched so that the gold dissolved in the recesses, but on the tops of the hemispheres it remained and thus the "eggs" on the black-violet surface of the shakudo alloy shone with a warm golden sheen!
"Falcon and Sparrow". A very original tsuba, the surface of which imitates wood. Signed by Master Hamano Masanobu. (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
The same tsuba is a reverse.
However, the most important thing is that very often work on the surface of tsuba with nanako grains has just begun. Separately cast and engraved figures of people and animals, objects and plants were also attached to it.
An original way of decorating the surface of a tsuba was the neko-gaki or "cat's claw" technique. With a sharp tool, strokes were made on the surface of the tsuba or habaki, as well as on the back of the kozuki handle, gradually widening and deepening, as if a cat had thrown its sharp claws into this material. Moreover, where they ended and where a burr usually remained, it was not removed, but left. Apparently only in order to once again emphasize that it was not the master who did this, but … the cat!
Yasurime are also oblique lines that were usually applied to the shank of a Japanese sword. But on tsubah, such strokes are also found and can, for example, imitate oblique streams of rain, which were called sigure.
Chrysanthemum in the rain. Production time: 1615-1868 Material: iron, sentoku, gold, silver, copper. Length 8, 3 cm; width 7, 3 cm; thickness 0.8 cm; weight 167, 3 g (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
We had to talk about the weaving technique, mukade-zogan in the last article, so it is quite possible to look there again … But this tsuba is worth telling about it in more detail. It is made in the Shimenawa style ("rice nightingale rope"). An important attribute in the Shinto religion, it means purification and holiness. The famous Japanese commander Takeda Shingen, who had not lost a single battle in his life, considered such ropes to be amulets. Naturally, this was reflected in the work of tsubako, as a result of which such "wicker" tsubas appeared, and even received their own name - the "Shingen" style. Time of production of this tsuba: XVII century. Material: copper and bronze. (National Museum of Design Cooper-Hewitt, New York)
