An iron tsuba

Description:

Japan, signed Keiô ninen Hineo no tora Akiniyoshi tatsu Surihan Watarai Tanetora saku, late Edo period, about 1866
8,2 x 7,8 x 0,48 cm
Tate-maru-gata. Iron, iroe-taka-zogan in gold, silver and shibuichi, sekigane in copper. Depicting a wise man, drawing a dragon of life. Kaku-mimi-koniku
From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995, T 115, former collection H. Sanger
In the 3rd century AD the famous Chinese painter Tsao Fusing (Jap.: Sô Futsukô) was summoned to the court of the prince Wu. One day he painted a red dragon, which rose out of the painting and plunged into a lake.Two centuries later the painting was laid on the dried out lake, during a period of a dire drought. The sky darkened at once and rain began to fall, as if evoced by a real water dragon