6th Dec, 2024 10:00
Fine Japanese Art
98
NOBUYOSHI: A FINE SHIBUICHI TSUBA WITH DAIDARABOTCHI AND WASOBEI
Sold for €4,160
including Buyer's Premium
By Hata Nobuyoshi (1807-1878), signed Nobuyoshi 信盧 with kakihan
Japan, dated to the Kaei era (1848-1854), late Edo period (1615-1868)
Of nagamarugata form, with hitsu-ana for a kozuka (plugged in gold) and a kogai. Finely worked in shibuichi, silver, and gold takazogan and hirazogan and carved in shishiaibori, katakiri, and kebori to depict the giant Daidarabotchi leaning over a snow-capped Mount Fuji and gazing downwards towards Wasobei and attendant samurai in a camp skillfully inlaid in shakudo, silver, and gold takazogan and subtly carved on the reverse. The verso signed NOBUYOSHI with a kakihan and dated to the Kaei era.
HEIGHT 8 cm, LENGTH 7.6 cm
WEIGHT 154.4 g
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear.
Provenance: From a private collection in Japan. An old collector’s number lacquered to the inside of the nakago hitsu-ana reading ‘76.2’.
Nobuyoshi (1807-1878) is listed in Robert E. Haynes, The Index of Japanese Sword Fittings and Associated Artists on p. 1420-1421 (H07283.0). A metalworker of the Iwama family of smiths, he was a student of Masayoshi and Nobuyuki, and worked as a swordsmith and fittings maker.
Daidarabotchi is a gigantic yokai in Japanese mythology, sometimes said to pose as a mountain range when sleeping. The size of Daidarabotchi was so great that his footprints were said to have created innumerable lakes and ponds. In one legend, Daidarabotchi weighed Mount Fuji and Mount Tsukuba to see which was heavier, but he accidentally split Tsukuba's peak after he was finished with it. For a large plate showing the same subject see lot 30.
The story of Shikaiya Wasobei was published by an author under the pseudonym Yukokushi in 1774, titled Ikoku Kidan Wasobei (‘Wasobei: Strange Tales from Distant Lands’). Known as the Japanese Gulliver, Wasobei was a wealthy merchant from Nagasaki, who traveled to six of the three-thousand worlds of the Buddhist Universe. The first translation of the story was presented to the Asian Art Society of Japan in 1879 by Basil Hall Chamberlain, and remains the only translation. Chamberlain drew several similarities to Jonathan Swift’s book Gulliver’s Travels, which came out 50 years earlier than Ikoku Kidan’s Wasobei in 1726, but concluded that while the authors may have drawn from similar inspirations, Yukokushi never came into contact with Swift’s work.
Museum comparison:
Compare a closely related tsuba by the same artist, also depicting Wasobei, dated 19th century, in the Rijksmuseum, object number AK-MAK-1133.
By Hata Nobuyoshi (1807-1878), signed Nobuyoshi 信盧 with kakihan
Japan, dated to the Kaei era (1848-1854), late Edo period (1615-1868)
Of nagamarugata form, with hitsu-ana for a kozuka (plugged in gold) and a kogai. Finely worked in shibuichi, silver, and gold takazogan and hirazogan and carved in shishiaibori, katakiri, and kebori to depict the giant Daidarabotchi leaning over a snow-capped Mount Fuji and gazing downwards towards Wasobei and attendant samurai in a camp skillfully inlaid in shakudo, silver, and gold takazogan and subtly carved on the reverse. The verso signed NOBUYOSHI with a kakihan and dated to the Kaei era.
HEIGHT 8 cm, LENGTH 7.6 cm
WEIGHT 154.4 g
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear.
Provenance: From a private collection in Japan. An old collector’s number lacquered to the inside of the nakago hitsu-ana reading ‘76.2’.
Nobuyoshi (1807-1878) is listed in Robert E. Haynes, The Index of Japanese Sword Fittings and Associated Artists on p. 1420-1421 (H07283.0). A metalworker of the Iwama family of smiths, he was a student of Masayoshi and Nobuyuki, and worked as a swordsmith and fittings maker.
Daidarabotchi is a gigantic yokai in Japanese mythology, sometimes said to pose as a mountain range when sleeping. The size of Daidarabotchi was so great that his footprints were said to have created innumerable lakes and ponds. In one legend, Daidarabotchi weighed Mount Fuji and Mount Tsukuba to see which was heavier, but he accidentally split Tsukuba's peak after he was finished with it. For a large plate showing the same subject see lot 30.
The story of Shikaiya Wasobei was published by an author under the pseudonym Yukokushi in 1774, titled Ikoku Kidan Wasobei (‘Wasobei: Strange Tales from Distant Lands’). Known as the Japanese Gulliver, Wasobei was a wealthy merchant from Nagasaki, who traveled to six of the three-thousand worlds of the Buddhist Universe. The first translation of the story was presented to the Asian Art Society of Japan in 1879 by Basil Hall Chamberlain, and remains the only translation. Chamberlain drew several similarities to Jonathan Swift’s book Gulliver’s Travels, which came out 50 years earlier than Ikoku Kidan’s Wasobei in 1726, but concluded that while the authors may have drawn from similar inspirations, Yukokushi never came into contact with Swift’s work.
Museum comparison:
Compare a closely related tsuba by the same artist, also depicting Wasobei, dated 19th century, in the Rijksmuseum, object number AK-MAK-1133.
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