Tsuba: Nightly visit at the Shrine
Signature/mei: Nara + Kao
Material: iron, shakudo, gold, copper
Dimension(h/w/d): 68.2 x 66.6 x 4.3/3.3 mm
Box included
Price: €1090 / $1300 / ¥200000
This tsuba depicts a very poetic scene of a monk visiting a shrine – probably the famous shrine of Nara – during nighttime.
In the lower left corner we find out monk. While his face is modeld in copper, his clothes are made from shakudo and silver, and the lantern he is carrying is made of gold.
He is heading to the entry of the shrine, the gate made again from copper and shakudo, like the monk.
Above the monk through the opening clouds carved on the base plate, we can see a zodiac sign inlaid in gold.
Some trees carved from the base plate and coloured in gold complete the scene.
On the backside we see the same tree formation and small stone lantern, again made from copper.
