Acht Ansichten;
ein See, zwei Gesichte
Mumei · Tetsu · Gin yori-mimi · Edo-Zeit
Omi Hakkei Tsuba
The rim alone stops everything. A continuous twisted silver wire, spiraling around the entire circumference of the plate — the yori-mimi — announces from the moment the object enters your field of vision that what it surrounds will be worth the attention. What it surrounds is an entire world.
Omi Hakkei
The Eight Views of Omi, a series of landscape images surrounding Lake Biwa in Omi Province, became an enormously popular theme among ukiyo-e print artists during the Edo period. The origin of this theme is said to have been a series of poems written in 1500 by Prince Konoe Masaie, inspired by landscape paintings from the Song and Yuan dynasties. The eight images display the inherent beauty of seasonal changes and daily events near Lake Biwa: the autumn moon as seen from Ishiyama Temple, the snow lingering on Mount Hira, the sunset viewed from Seta, the sound of Mii Temple’s evening bell, the ships returning to Yabase Harbor, the clearing skies of Awazu, the Karasaki night rain, and a flock of geese descending upon Katata.
The plate is iron, the hitsu-ana plugged with solid gold in a fine parallel-line texture. The silver yori-mimi requires either a jig or an extremely well-trained eye to achieve even pitch around a circular plate. On this piece the join is invisible. The silver has aged to a tone that reads as cooler and more reflective than the iron ground — functioning as the lake’s own shimmer framing the landscape it contains.
Die Landschaft lesen
The maker distributed the eight views across both faces without attempting to label or sequence them. They are not a numbered set. They are a continuous world in which the viewer moves, recognizing elements as they become visible. On the omote: the pagoda rising among pines is Ishiyamadera. To the right, a deer stands beneath a gnarled tree — invoking the sacred landscape of the lakeside. Lower right, a pagoda among bamboo and chrysanthemums. Lower left, a figure in a boat navigating waves — the returning sails of Yabase, or the fisherman of Seta in the sunset. On the ura: a waterfall descends from mountains with a pavilion. The lake extends to the horizon, small boats scattered across it — Yabase harbor with its returning sails. Lower center, a boatman poles through waves. The gold accents throughout suggest the particular luminosity of the lake district.
A tsuba treatment of the Omi Hakkei at this level of ambition — covering both faces continuously, using the full range of iron-ground landscape carving with gold accents and a silver rope rim — is not a standard production piece. It is a commission. The Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa will assess the attribution. The visual evidence suggests a maker within the late Edo iron landscape tradition, possibly the Mito school or a related kinko workshop. The lake does not change. The maker of this tsuba reduced all eight views to two faces of iron and carried them where a sword goes.
Lake Biwa Tsuba
Tsuba. Mumei. Tetsu, kebori und kin-zogan, gin yori-mimi, kin hitsu-ana. Maru-gata. Omi Hakkei zu. Edo-Zeit. In Japan erworben. Derzeit zur NBTHK Tokubetsu-Hozon-Shinsa.