An iron tsuba

Description:

Japan, Kaga School, mid Edo period, 18th. c.
7,5 x 7 x 0,45 cm
Aoi-gata. Iron, hira-zôgan in gold and aokin, ke-bori, sekigane in copper. Hôo bird in between kiri flowers. Suki-nokoshi-mimi.
From an old German private collection, published in: Günther Heckmann, ‘Tsuba’. H.U.B Verlag, Nürtingen, 1995, T 56
The more the artists of the Kaga school deviated from the original Yoshiro line, and the more their work became influenced by other schools, the wider became the choice of materials and themes. Apart from the Morisada Yoshiro group, it was the Nagayoshi family in particular who had, from the middle of the 17th cen-tury, over a period of 13 generations, developed the technique of the kaga-zogan to perfection. Early Kaga tsuba are rarely signed. Due to the founding of new groups, and because of the creation of many forgeries since the end of the 18th century, the pieces can hardly be classified