Shoki-kinko Bronze Tsuba

This heavy bronze tsuba is stippled with a fine pattern known as Hari Ishime (pine needle punched surface).  This treatment was common from the late Kamakura through early Muromachi periods.  Two rudimentary hitsuana were chiseled through the plate.  Later sukashi is most often cut out with a fine saw, but in early times this technique was not in common use, and the preferred method was chiselling.   There is a good chance that these hitsu ana are original.  The age of the tsuba is evidenced by the surface wear, which has in some areas removed the ishime.  The plate tapers slightly from the seppa dai to the edge - a kantei point which is normally associated with 'ko tosho' iron tsuba.  This observation brings up the interesting possibility that the 'kotosho' tradition was also represented by equivalent soft metal tsuba.  Thus, is it proper to attribute this style of tsuba to sword smiths, or is more appropriate to simply identify them as representative of an early period, in which they were made from a variety of materials, likely by a variety of craftsmen?   I have chosen the term shoki kinko (early period kinko) to identify this tsuba, because it suggests only that it is the product of early soft metal craftsmen.

8.4 x 8.3 x 0.28cm

Late Kamakura to Nanbokucho Periods (late 13th to 14th c.)

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