An iron tsuba

Description:

Japan, signed Naohide and kakihan, late Edo period, 2nd half of 19th c.
7,2 x 7,0 x 0,55 cm
Tate-maru-gata. Iron, iroe-taka-zogan in gold, silver, shakudo and copper. Depicting three sennin: Chokwaro, Tekkai and Gama. Kaku-mimi-koniku.
From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995, T 102
Hamano Naohide had been a pupil both of Hamano Naoyuki and Iwama Masayoshi. He had been working during the second half of the 19th century. According to legends sennin will live for 100.000 years, if they keep to certain firm rules. They are expected to lead a self-controlled life in seclusion, devoted to meditation, creed and the science of magic powers, to which they owe their immortality. Gama Sennin is illustrated without hair, without eyebrows, and with a lot of swellings on his body. When he once went to have a bath, he was followed by a man called Bagen, who transformed into a toad to watch him