A shinchu tsuba

Description:

Japan, signed Kikuoka Mitsumasa, mid Edo period, about 1800
6.3 x 5.2 x 0.5 - 1.0 cm
Of "figural" shape. Shinchu, in maru-bori with hira-zogan in gold, signature ground inlayed in copper Shishi, sitting on the trunk of a tree. Maru-mimi.
Kikuoka Mitsumasa (1759 - 1824) is a younger brother of Kikuoka Mitsuyuki (1750 - 1800), the founder of the Kikuoka school. The masters of the Kikuoka school had mainly worked in imitation of the schools of the Goto, the Yanagawa and the Yokoya. The latter of which preferred to use the motif of the temple lion, "shishi". The lion does not exist in Japanese fauna. His appearance in art goes back to the Chinese lion. He is often denoted as "kara-shishi", "kara" = "Chinese", "shishi" = "lion". In the artistic illustration the appearance of the shishi sometimes varies - From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995, T 92