Tsuba: Ajiro-mon no zu tsuba
Signature/mei: Odawara-ju Masatsugu saku
Material: shakudo, gold
Era/jidai: Edo
Dimension(h/w/d): 65.5 x 63.0 x 4.3 mm
Certificate: NBTHK Hozon
Price: €3150 / $3450 / ¥500000
This tsuba was published in the NBTHK monthly magazine Token Bijutsu (Feb. 2007) and also in the series “Tosogu Classroom” by Fukushi Shigeo, which I will quote as follows:
Ajiro-mon no zu tsuba – Bamboo wickerwork
mei: Odawara-ju Masatsugu saku
tatemaru-gata, shakudo, sukesagebori, golden nawame-fukurin, two hitsu-ana
This tsuba is rather unusual, isn’t it. I think it depicts a kind of ajiro bamboo wickerwork. The design is quite elaborate and must have been time consuming to make. The raw material is shakudo and the pattern was worked out in sukisage-sukidashibori. The rim is trimmed with a golden nawame-fukurin and because of the smallish signature I think we have here again a later work of Masatugu.