An iron tsuba

Description:

Japan, Awa-Shoami school, mid Edo period, early 18th c.
8 x 7,8 x 0,38 cm
Roku-mokkô-gata form. Iron, hira-zôgan in gold and silver, ke-bori, inome-bori-sukashi. The front decorated with a hôo bird flying over kiri flowers, the reverse with kiri flowers. Kaku-mimi-koniku.
From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995, T. 37
The hôo bird is regarded as the phoenix of the orient. For the Japanese artists he is a mixture of a pheasantm a peacock and a bird of paradise. In Japan the decpiction of this bird in combination with kiri flowers represents the authority of the state