Zwei Kraniche unter der Kiefer
Pine and a Pair of Cranes, Aizu Shoami
A round iron tsuba of the Aizu Shoami, most of the plate left open. A pine branch reaches across the top, its needles in gold. At the right edge a dark crane stands with its head raised. A gold crane moves low over the rocks below, its neck stretched forward. Both hitsu-ana are lined with gold.
Das Objekt
The NBTHK describes a round plate of polished iron, worked with inlay and color, zogan iroe. The rim is suki-nokoshi-mimi, left standing from the plate itself, and it is richly inlaid with gold. Iron ground, gold rim and gold-lined openings frame the open field between them.
The cranes are set apart in metal as well as in pose. One is shakudo, dark and upright. The other is gold and low to the ground. The pine on this face has a dark branch and bright needles.
Die Rückseite
The back carries the pine alone. Its trunk rises along the left edge in a reddish metal, the bark carved rough. One gold cluster of needles reaches toward the center. Below the opening lie three small inlays, two of gold and one of silver.
Kranich und Kiefer
The paper names the subject shoju sokaku-zu, a pine with a pair of cranes. Japan Search, the portal of the National Diet Library, notes that the crane, set beside the pine, stands for long life. The front shows the pair. The back keeps only the tree.
Aizu
The NBTHK attributes the guard to the Aizu branch of the Shoami, in the north of Honshu. An earlier version of this page also repeated the claim that the Shoami served the Ashikaga shogunate as one of three great schools of metalwork. That claim could not be traced to a reliable source, and it is left out here.
The Crane Tsuba
Tsuba. Mumei, Aizu-Shoami. Tetsu, migaki-ji, zogan-iroe. Maru-gata, suki-nokoshi-mimi mit reicher Goldeinlage, Hitsu-ana mit Gold gefasst. Shoju sokaku-zu. Edo-Zeit. NBTHK Hozon. Privatsammlung, erworben in Europa.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Tsuba
- School
- Shoami › Aizu-Shoami
- Period
- Edo-Zeit
- Material
- Tetsu
- Motif
- Tiere und VögelPflanzen und Jahreszeiten
