A cloisonné enamel tachi koshirae (scabbard for a long sword)
Attributed to a Kyoto workshop, Meiji Period
The saya, tsuka, tsuba and small fittings all bearing a black ground with gold wire whorls and elaborately decorated in rich coloured enamels with assorted roundels of butterflies, flowers and ho-o birds within gold wires, unsigned.
95.2cm (37½in) long.
FOOTNOTES
七宝太刀拵　無銘　明治時代

Although an edict of 1876 rescinded the traditional right of the samurai to wear two swords, enamelers, lacquerers and metalworkers continued to make elaborate set of sword fittings. Some of these were perhaps intended for sale to Japanese customers but outsize tachi (slung swords) such as these were designed to appeal to the Western fascination with Japan’s traditional warriors and their weapons.

The decoration on the handle and scabbard of this sword is loosely in the style of Namikawa Yasuyuki but is more likely the product of another workshop in Kyoto, possibly that of Shibata, to whose work both the colour scheme and the wirework on this piece bear a close resemblance.

Compare with similar cloisonne enamel tachi illustrated by Joe Earle, Splendors of Meiji, Treasures of Imperial Japan, p.168, nos.158 & 159, Florida, USA 1999.