TSU JINPO: A SUPERB SHAKUDO TSUBA WITH HAKURYO FROM THE NOH PLAY HAGOROMO

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Lot details

By Tsu Jinpo, signed Tsu Jinpo
Japan, Goto School, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Published: Ponting, Herbert (1922) In Lotus-Land Japan.

The shakudo tsuba of marugata shape, bearing a masterfully executed nanako ground applied with takazogan nanako lattice and with a gilt rim. The kozuka and kogai hitsu-ana with shakudo nanako ategane, the nakago-ana with some suaka sekigane. Finely worked in iro-e takazogan of gold, silver, suaka, and shibuichi, depicting Hakuryo, the protagonist of the Noh drama Hagoromo, draped in the magical feather-cloak of the tennin as he watches her perform the celestial dance, suggested by the mesmerized look on his face, two Chidori flying high above. The reverse with a few birds flying as the haze moves in, signed TSU JINPO.

HEIGHT 7.2 cm, LENGTH 7 cm
WEIGHT 154.1 g

Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and rubbing to the gilt.
Provenance: Ex-collection Herbert Ponting (1870-1935). Herbert George Ponting was a professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this role, he captured some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Less well known, he also left behind thousands of evocative images of Japan, and three Japan-themed books.

Tsu Jinpo (1720-1761) is listed in the Haynes Index of Japanese Sword Fittings and Associated Artists on pp. 432 (H 02047.0) and was the student of Nomura Masamichi (H. 04166) and Goto Tsujo (H. 10775).

Note the description provide by Herbert Ponting in the publication quoted above: “An exceedingly fine tsuba in rich black shakudo by Tsu Jinpo, illustrates the beautiful legend of Mio-no-matsu-bara. A fisherman finds a robe of feathers hanging on a tree and is about to carry it off, when a beautiful fairy appears and claims it. The fisherman declines to give it up until she dances before him one of the dances known only to the gods. This she does to an accompaniment of celestial music, and then flies away to the moon, her home. These simple touches, so characteristically Japanese — the net, the feather coat, and the fisherman looking upwards at the unseen fairy dancing in the air — are quite sufficient to convey the whole story, for everyone knows it by heart. The tsuba has a gilt band round it, the birds are gold, the fisherman’s face is silver-bronze, and the feather-coat is of gold and copper.”