Kokusai Tosogu Kai 2024

Kumamoto – Shimada Art Museum, October 25/26/27 2024, Kokusai Tosogu Kai 2024 Convention

For me personally, the highlight of the year, besides having a booth at DTI, was the KTK convention in Kumamoto, Japan, where I was invited to exhibit some pieces of my collection.

Since it was the 20th exhibition, it was a great milestone and anniversary of this private association of lovers of Japanese sword ornaments – Tosogu.

As usual each KTK member was invited to display some highlights of their collection. As this years KTK convention took place at the Shimada Art Museum in Kumamoto, which is located in the former province known as Higo, it was obvious for me to show some high quality Higo tsuba.

These tsuba will also be included in the next KTK catalog (write me an email if you need a copy). Read the description of the tsuba at the end of this article.

I imagined other KTK members would greatly enjoy Higo tsuba in the province they where once made.

Even if the journey to Kumamoto took a great amount of time and energy, in hindsight it was a great idea, because during the KTK convention, the Shimada Art Museum was open to the public. Therefore whole Japanese connoisseurs including their families came to the museum to view the exhibition.

Among the visitors was Ms. Setsu Yamazaki, the director of the Yatsushiro City Museum.

Unfortunately her museum was temporally closed due to renovation, therefore I could not pay a visit, but I was able to show her some more of the tsuba I brought, including some signed “Yatsushiro” which she deeply enjoyed. It was a great honor and pleasure presenting her these works of art.

The convention took a lot of effort to organize, I thank the Shimada Art Museum for hosting the event and the president of the KTK Mr. Nick Nakamura for the organization.

Big thanks to the other collectors who brought highlights from their collections and made the convention a great success. My favorite was a Japanese collector who, like me, brought several Higo-Tsuba, but on the level of Juyo and even Tokubetsu-Juyo, which I greatly admired and enjoyed.

As I said, it was a great honor and joy to present these tsuba to an international audience of tosogu connoisseurs and to see these works of art admired by the Japanese public.

It really felt a bit like the tsuba were coming home.

Next morning there was already an article in the local newspaper:

The convention ended with a large banquet with a spectacular view on the castle:

The town of Kumamoto is famous for it’s old castle Kumamoto-jō, also known as (銀杏城 Ginnan-jō, „Ginkgo-Nut Castle“ – which was build in the beginning of the Edo period from 1601 until 1607 – and can be visited.

Unfortunately, it was damaged during the earthquake of 2016 and is still being repaired.

I highly recommend visiting the castle if you are in the Kumamoto, as it belongs to the Nihon sanmeijō (日本三名城), “three significant castles of Japan“, next to Matsumoto and Himeji.

Further, Kumamoto has a very old garden “Suizenji-Park” (水前寺成趣園 / 水前寺公園). It was build by Hosokawa Tadatoshi staring in 1638 and is also worth a visit.

The exhibited tsuba

This tsuba has the shape of naga maru-gata with two hitsu-ana which reminds of pine cones. The base material is copper and the surface has remnants of black lacquer while the mimi is covered with an “odawara fukurin” made from shinchu. This kind of rim is an invention of Hirata Hikozo from the end of Momoyama period and is typically made from
a different material as the base material of the tsuba itself. As seen here, the odawara fukurin usually is decorated with two circles of increased dots: While the outer circle has bigger markings, the inner circle consists of significantly more of those dots but smaller,
reminding somehow on a watch face with markings for each minute. Also that some of those dots on the outer circle have punchmarks (omote, three o’clock position) are typical for this type of rim. (For a full explanation please read KTK 16th Catalogue 2020 “Odawara
Fukurin – it’s concept and origin” by Eckhard Kremers.) The tagane on the top and bottom of the nakago-ana are also typical of Hikozo, so that this tsuba, even though it is not signed, can clearly be attributed to him.

It is a large, impressive tsuba in the shape of mokko-gata and has two elongated hitsu-ana. The ground iron is good and well forged. While on the omote it looks even and homogeneous on the ura we find a larger hammered finish (tsuchime-ji). The brass inscription depicts horsetail and ferns which looks very lively and three dimensional. In
any case, a bold composition and delicate work. The decorative holes at the top and bottom of the nakago-ana are typical for the 5th generation Shimizu and tell us that this tsuba was made by Jingo Shigenaga, born in 1813 and died in 1854. He was the last generation Shimizu who made kinkō works. As this is the same generation as Fukanobu in Kumamoto and since there where many disciples of Godai Jingo with many extant works exist, this only could mean that Higo Jingo was even more famous and appreciated than Fukanobu during this period.

This large tsuba in maru-gata has two hitsu-ana which reminds of pine cones. The nawamezogan alternating in gold and silver – has the design of a rope layed out in a perfect circle.
It must have been a very laborious and painstaking work to achieve such a fine and detailed result. The tagane at the top and bottom of the nakago-ana are typical for Rakujo, the 3rd generation Kamiyoshi, born 1817 and died 1884. His artistry is famous as he is considered the best representative of the Kamiyoshi school. The surface design he
mastered, which is reminiscent of toad skin and called gamma-hada, is very famous. On this tsuba it can be seen in perfect condition.

This tsuba has the shape of maru-gata with two hitsu-ana in their classical form. The base material is copper while the vertical stripes have traces of black lacquer. The mimi is covered with a fukurin made from shakudo. The tagane on the top and bottom of the nakagoana
are typical for Hikozo.