(Reverse)
Large rectangular sword guard. Iron with gold wire inlay, much of it missing due to use. 8.15 x 7.5 x .4 cm. The manner of execution represents a high degree of artistic hybridity, suggesting that this piece was made along maritime trade-routes, where artisans had access to decorative arts from around the globe. The indented corners, pointed Shitogi-gata seppa-dai, smooth-skinned dragons and almost caricature drawing- style points to Indochina, perhaps Tonkin. There is a similar piece in the 1973 W.M. Hawley book Tsubas (sic) in Southern California. I have seen a number of similar pieces with NBTHK attribution to "Nagasaki". At first I was dubious, believing it more likely is that these were imported to Japan through the VOC factory in Deshima. Cultural exchanges between China and Nagasaki became quite frequent after the Kangxi emperor reopened Qing seaports to foreign trade in 1684, and issued trading licenses to private concerns.
(The obverse of the tsuba pictured above)
In the 1640s a number of refugees from the collapse of the Ming Dynasty emigrated to Nagasaki. One of them—Shoyu Itsunen became the abbot of Kofukuji temple in Nagasaki. Itsunen is also known to have taught painting to Kawamura Fukuyoshi, a samurai and customs official who is better known as Jakushi I. Another Chinese priest, Yinyuan Lonqi, was the abbot of Wanfu temple on Mount Huangbo in Fujian. He came to Nagasaki at the invitation of Itsunen. Lonqi, known in Japan as Ingen Ryuki, became the founder of Obaku Zen Buddhism. The Nagasaki school of painting was deeply influenced by the Chinese painter Shen Nanpin, who lived and taught painting in Nagasaki for several years. Nanpin’s work was heavily influenced by European scientific and botanical painting, which resonated with the intellectual community at Nagasaki, which in Japan was the center of Chinese medical studies, and Rangaku (the study of European science).
Stylistically identical to the tsuba illustrated above, the piece below is decorated with dragons, phoenix and tiger, carved in low relief and decorated with wire inlay. The carving borrows much from cinnabar lacquerwares, while the wire inlay evokes the bullion embroidery on silk textiles. The rounded cloud-forms are associated with Qianlong period (1735-1796), or later.
The cloverleaf/rice-ball shaped (shitogi-gata) seppa-dai is intentionally eccentric. The guard was never mounted, but preserved as an art-object or curio, reinforcing the theory that guards like this were made to be used as a gift--not necessarily meant to be worn on a weapon. Some, such as the first example above clearly saw use. The ha end of the nakago-ana is flattened, in the Chinese manner, not pointed in the Japanese style. The seal-script has yet to be translated definitively. One nihongo reading might be “Chikamune.” This probably is an art-name. This maker is not listed in Haynes's Index.
(Private European collection)
A similar example (below) was published in the Token Shibata magazine Rei. The seal-script signature is “Shubai”, listed in Haynes’s Index. H.08805.0 (ca. 1650-1700). Haynes identifies Shubai as an “artist from China”. In his book Nanban Tsuba, Yoshimura Shigeta illustrates a similar piece on page 10. The caption reads, “Nagasaki-he gairaishita Chukokujin no saku…” (Said to be made by a Chinaman who came to Nagasaki). This guard is signed with silver wire inlay. There is little wear, but evidence of Japanese use, as in the presence of copper sekigane and punch-marks around the ha end of the nakago-ana.
This guard is signed “Shubai”, which can also be read as “Shukai” or “Jubei”. Hedging its bets, the NBTHK issued a Hozon certificate in 2009 that identifies the maker as a resident either of Guangdong Province, China, or Nagasaki, Hizen Province. This is significant because NBTHK acknowledges the possibility that this piece might have been made by a Chinese carver working in Nagasaki. Were this piece unsigned, it would surely have been branded simply as “Nanban”, or perhaps “Nagasaki”.
Let’s look at a final example. This iron tsuba is fitted in a box with hakogaki by Kanzan Sato, with an attribution to Nanban. The guard is iron, mokko (quatre-lobed) form. 9.25 x 8.4 x .55 cm. The double rim encloses a dynamic design of dragon and phoenix entwined amidst Loukong/Karakusa interlacing, with three Kiri-ba (Paulownia leaves)—a traditional Japanese symbol associated with the Imperial household
and the national government. Looking at drawing conventions; how the forms are rendered, one finds striking similarities with the preceding examples, together with a number of differences. While the preceding examples are framed by wide wire-inlaid rims, the guard below has a double border enclosing a row of beads or jewels—an archaic motif. While the overall effect is evocative of Qing sword-guards, the style is not purely Chinese, but a novel synthesis of decorative tropes associated with Asian Export art.
The pointed seppa-dai is nearly identical to the Shubai tsuba published in Rei, as is the many of adorning the figures and leaves with gold wire inlay. The peculiar drawing style used to delineate the forms in this guard is the same as that employed in the preceding sword-guards. Given these striking similarities, this final specimen might also be classified as Tojin-Yashiki Tsuba, perhaps the work of a different atelier. We must also consider the possibility that this could have been made in China and imported to Japan. Either way, it no longer is possible to simply dismiss a Chinese-looking sword guards as “Nanban” when the likelihood exists that they were produced by Chinese artists who may have lived and worked in Japan.
Nagasaki’s Tojin-Yashiki grew up around the Chinese cantonment. Its population greatly outnumbered the Dutch. It is widely assumed that the Dutch held a monopoly on foreign trade in Japan. As I have stated in previous articles, Sakoku Japan was far more porous than 20th century revisionist would have us believe. Foreign goods flowed into Japan through Satsuma from the Ryukyus, through Hirado and Tsushima from Joseon (Korea), through Hakodate through Russia and Manchuria. Less attention is paid to the Chinese based in Nagasaki because they conducted business as a community of private merchants, whereas the VOC factory at Dejima was recognized by Edo as the official diplomatic and trade mission of a foreign state.
Even if a debate were to continue about whether some, or all of these guards were produced in Nagasaki, in Guangdong province, Guangzhou city or elsewhere in China, it is more likely that they were imported to Japan by Chinese merchants than by the United Dutch East India Company. The V.O.C seems to have relied more heavily on Sri Lankan and Monsoon Asian suppliers for such goods. Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) wrote that when preparations were underway for an ambassadorial Hofreis trek to Edo, on years when no company ships had arrived from Batavia, the Dutch were forced to buy from the Chinese gifts to be distributed along the way.
As more information is gathered about what used to be known as “Nanban” tsuba, new nomenclature is needed to describe these objects with greater specificity. The four sword-guards discussed in this article share a highly distinctive style. Two of these specimens bear signatures. Based on a comparison of materials, technique, subject and style, it is safe to say that enough similarities exist to identify these works as having been produced by the same atelier, at very least belonging to the same community of carvers. These works have been identified by Yoshimura, Haynes (and cautiously by the NBTHK) as having been produced by Chinese carvers working in Nagasaki. Because Chinese residents of Nagasaki during the Edo period were required to live in a cantonment known as Tojin-Yashiki (Chinatown), these sword-guards might be classified as Tojin- Yashiki Tsuba, or perhaps Kiyou (Nagasaki) Tojin (Chinese) Tsuba.
By
JAMES LANCEL McELHINNEY
© 2017
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
HOW “CHINESE” SWORDGUARDS BECAME “BARBARIC”
(To be continued)
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