Back to school

Article posted on Saturday, June, 26th, 2010 at 8:29 am

I was walking around school between lessons looking for a teacher (I work at 8 schools in Kurume city) & came across a room filled with historical artefacts. The room was decked out like a folk museum with items from various eras of Japan’s past. I later found out that the more ancient stuff were replicas but hey, considering this is a local school, I was still impressed.

Anyway, after getting permission (of course), the teacher said that NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, had been there just two days earlier for a story. Have I in fact scooped NHK? Perhaps the big question is, Does it really matter?

Check out the vid and tell me what you think!

Show and tell – Tsuba II

Article posted on Thursday, May, 27th, 2010 at 8:58 pm

Earlier this year I introduced to you all my interest in Tsuba, the hand guards of Japanese swords (link). Well, here is another in my collection. There are only three Tsuba in my collection, it’s an expensive hobby you know!

This Tsuba
I picked this one up in Fukuoka city. This probably won’t seem so unusual to you, Japan may well be the place to pick up a Japanese antique or two. (Just keep that to yourselves though.) The majority of Tsuba that I’d bought though were back in my home town of Brisbane or on-line. Be sure to check out E-bay, but beware, there is a mountain of crappy ones.

In contrast to the majority of Tsuba made of iron, this one is copper. The overall feel is quite delicate & elegant. You’ll notice there are inlays of two different colour metals. Both are alloys, the dark one in known as Shakudō, the other is an impure gold. And by the way, the pattern is known as Sayagata (紗綾形) and it wraps around the rim in places. The central hole allowed the tang of the blade to pass through and you can see its shape has been altered multiple times.

How old is it? No idea. Who made it / What school of Tsuba maker? No idea, I know enough to know to not trust what is written on the box (Umetada). Size? Dang small.

The box rounds things off nicely. A previous owner obviously felt that the Tsuba was deserving of a made-to-order home.

Show and tell – Tsuba

Article posted on Tuesday, March, 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm

Tsuba
I’m no expert when it comes to tsuba. What I can tell you with some level of confidence is that a tsuba is a hand guard on Japanese swords. Unfortunately, the word also means saliva but more on that later.

The only thing I know for sure about this tsuba, is that I like it. I bought it about 10 years ago, on-line of all places. I’ve since shown some people here in Japan & it seems it is of a low-ish standard but that I needn’t hang my head in shame.

Description
It’s very small (58mm x 49mm / 2.28in x 1.92in) & heavy and you can see it has a four-lobed, rounded rim. Within the rim are gold (low purity) & silver inlays. The two copper blobs indicate it has been fitted & refitted to several blades during its lifetime.

A visit to an antique store
What better place to find tsuba than in an antique store in Japan. There’s always a few on display, and you can count on all the good stuff being out of sight. Out-of-sight – awesome but also out-of-sight – you need to know the secret handshake. One thing I’ve noticed, is that if you show signs of interest in anything on display at one of the more up-market stores, the staff will either be suppressing a snigger or will openly mock you. And this is before you even get the chance to ask the all-important question:

Sumimasen, TSUBA ga arimasuka? – Excuse me, is there any saliva?