Nobuie Tsuba By Umetada Masahide and Myouchin Muneyoshi

This tsuba is a very good record of the esteem placed on Nobuie tsuba in the Edo period. It is basically a cooperative production of two famous smiths working to produce a copy of a very well known Nobuie. It is likely that this tsuba was done as a special order by the owner of the original as it basically identical to the original which is pictured in Nakamura’s “Nobuie Tsuba” book.

The signature on the tsuba reads:

(on front)

Nite Nobuie Zu, Muneyoshi Utsuri Kore “ Muneyoshi (maker) copied this from the Nobuie example”

(on back)

Shita ji Umetada Masahide

“The material (iron) was made by Umetada Masahide”

The texture of the iron is very soft with an oily sheen to it, and it is likely that the maker patinated it this way at the time of production to copy the then old patina on the original Nobuie. The design is extremely well cut into the surface and has not suffered any damage. There is a bit of gold and silver nunome remaining in places and it is likely that this was only done here or there to give the aged appearance of the original. There is a sekigane which shows that this tsuba may have originally been intended for actual use. This tsuba has been in my personal collection for some time and it will make a fine addition to any collection of a Nobuie connoisseur.

Dimensions: 8cm x 7.4cm x 0.6cm at the rim.

Comes with box with hakko gaki.