mumei (unsigned): Hikozō (彦三)
Size: 7.8 cm x 7.7 cm
Thickness at rim: 0.45 cm
Weight: 160 gr
Period: Azuchi Momoyama
– Published on book: Higo Kinkō Taikan (N°172, page 173), by Satō, Honma and Kashima (1964).
– Published on book: Higo no Kinkō, N° 54, by Kumamoto Museum (1978).
– Exhibited at Kumamoto Museum (1978).
– Exhibited in Japan many times.
– Label:
54．翁鑢⼩⽥原覆輪鐔
無銘 彦三
熊本・個⼈蔵
54. Okina-yasurime Odawara-fukurin tsuba
Mumei: Hikozō
Kumamoto, kojin-zō
54. Tsuba with file stroke décor of concentric circles and Odawara-style rim trimming.
Unsigned: Hikozō
Privately owned in Kumamoto.
With a N.B.T.H.K. Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu Certification.
Okina-yasuri-mon tsuba (翁鑢⽂鐔) –
Sword guard with file mark décor in the shape of concentric circles
Nadekaku-gata (撫⾓形), suaka (素銅), okina-yasuri-ji (翁鑢地), kage-sukashi (陰透), shinchū Odawara-fukurin (真鍮⼩⽥原覆輪)
Angular shape with prominently rounded corners, copper, plate finished with file marks in the shape of concentril circles, negative openwork design, brass rim trimming in so-called Odawara style.
The Higo-based Hirata (平⽥) family has its origins within the Shōami (正阿弥) system.
Its founder, the first generation Hikozō (彦三), became a retainer of Hosokawa Sansai (細川三斎, 1563–1646) in Kyōto and followed his master to Kumamoto (熊本) in Higo province when the latter was transferred there.
This is also where Hikozō died in Kan’ei twelve (寛永, 1635).
Together with the lineages of two of his students, Shimizu Jingō (志⽔甚五) (who was his nephew) and Nishigaki Kanshirō (⻄垣勘四郎), and with Hayashi Matashichi (林⼜七), who had an Owari background, the Hirata School constituted one of the four major currents of local sword fittings making (Higo-kinkō).
Hikozō often worked in a style that can be considered as a continuation of the Shōami tradition and although he sometimes also used iron, he mostly made softmetal fittings from pure copper (suaka), unrefined copper (yamagane), brass, or copper-gold alloy (shakudō).
Apart from inlay (zōgan), he also applied a radial or concentrical file stroke décor, achieving so a highly elegant decorative effect.
This sword guard is made of pure copper with concentrical file stroke design and with brass used for the so called Odawara technique used on the mimi of the Tsuba.
Here we have an amazing work of Master Hikozō.
*Note: on the backside (ura) of the sword guard we can see perfectly a sword cut that probably, at the time, cutted the seppa and habaki and stopped on the Tsuba.
The Cut on the ura is completely straight and it is sure that it is very old.