Tsuba, signe d by Jakushi, Japan, 19th century

Tsuba, sword guard, tate maru-gata, made of iron with multi-metallic inlays depicting a lakeside landscape with rocks and pines, a figure near a thatched-roof hut, a man fishing from his boat in the foreground, geese in flight, junks and rugged hills in the distance. The drawing continues on the back showing again a man fishing from his boat. This decor is of the "Nanga sansui" type.

The subject is a Nanga-style Sansui (mountains and sea) landscape, a popular subject among Chinese scholars of the late Ming / early Qing dynasty. Kawamura Fukuyoshi (1638-1707), the founder of the Jakushi school, was a samurai from Nagasaki who studied painting with Shoyu Itsunen, a Chinese monk of the Shofukuji temple. Itsunen's mentor was Ingen Ryuki, (aka Yinyuan Lonqi: 1592-1673) abbot of the Wanfu Temple on Mt. Huangbo in Fujian, China. With the fall of the Ming Dynasty and at the invitation of Itsunen, Ingen travels to Nagasaki. Within a few years, he had gained access to the shogun, Tokugawa Ietsuna, who donated land on which Ingen built the Manpuku-?aaji temple, in Uji, near Kyoto.

Parts of the iron plate have been reserved with varnish to etch the surface. The design was then refined via carving, chasing, inlay and damascening in gold and silver.

Signed JAKUSHI - this name was used by a famous line of artists (8 generations) working in Nagasaki between 1690 and 1878. This particular piece is attributed to one of the generations working at the end of the Edo period, at the beginning of the 19th century.

6,7 x 7,3 x 0,4 cm