An iron tsuba in Kaga style

Description:

Japan, Momoyama period, late 16th c.
8,4 x 8,3 x 0,5 cm, 0,4 cm seppa-dai
Tate-maru-gata. Iron, gomoku-zogan in brass, ko-sukashi pine needles on water. Kaku-mimi-koniku.
From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995,T. 52, former collection of François Poncetton, former Haller collection
During the civil wars in the Muromachi period, Kaga was a province where cities like Daishöji, Ataka and Oyama (today's Kanazawa), were held by powerful military clans. All kinds of weapons had always been well known products of this province, even during the long lasting peaceful time of the Tokugawa. When in 1606 the seat of government was transferred from Fu-shimi to Edo, many artists left their native city, Fushimi, to work in the surrounding provinces. Some of these artists accepted the invitation of the powerful Daimyo Maeda Toshige, and came to the province of Kaga and esppecially to its capital Kanazawa - Cf.: Koji-Hôten I, p. 223