Shonai Shoami (所内正阿彌) School Tsuba
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A classic example
of kinko Shonai Shoami (所内正阿彌) school work. ca. 1700 - 1750 (mid Edo). This subject is from the "Tale of Genji". It depicts a praying mantis with broken cart wheels, and vines with flowers, all in very fine detail. The plate of this tsuba is yamagane (copper),
with an ishimi (numerous small punch marks) The raised inlay is in gold, shakudo, silver and
bronze (or sentoku-do). This use of various metals is called Iroe, literally
"painting with multicolored metals". The Mantis has gold applied in the
style known as nunome. Nunome is a technique to apply very thin sheets of
soft metal to a base metal. Many very fine crosshatches are incised into the
base metal, with a thin sheet of foil applied over it and rubbed into the
surface.
The mimi (rim) is is covered with a shakudo fukarin (rim cover) in the rozuke style. The two ana (openings) have been plugged with shakudo inserts. Shonai is a province in the northernmost part of the main island of Japan. The relative isolation from the rest of Japan, at the time, allowed for a more reflective and elegant style to to evolve, this being a fine example. This branch of the Shoami family school was founded by Shoami Matahachiro, as a retainer of the Sakai family, in Kambun 4 (1644). It is interesting to note that the first Yasuchika was a student of the Shonai artist Sato Chinkyu. Shonai Shoami work was greatly influenced by Yasuchika's work as he became well known. |
finish. The dull red color of this tsuba is indicative of the works done in
yamagane by this school.
Its
use here seems to be to achieve the effect of cells in the wings of this
praying mantis.