A JAPANESE YAMAGANE KO-KINKO TSUBA

A JAPANESE YAMAGANE KO-KINKO TSUBA

LATE MUROMACHI PERIOD/EARLY MOMOYAMA, 16TH CENTURY

The quatrelobed body decorated with openwork designs of shamrocks, with impressed chrysanthemum flowers and tomoe (three commas design), the rim with a copper ring, unsigned, with Hozon Tosogu (Sword fitting Worthy of Preservation) certificate no.4011980 issued by the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai (The Society for the Preservation of the Japan Art Sword), dated 10th May 2017, in a kiri box, 6.5cm. (3)

Provenance: from a private European collection.

The word yamagane refers to a type of impure copper produced before the Edo Period. Early methods for refining copper were not good enough to make it pure and so it often includes small amounts of other metals.