Hosokawa Tadayoshi - Tsuba
Hosokawa Tadayoshi - Tsuba
Hosokawa Tadayoshi - Another Artefact?
Tsuba: Thick Iron plate, design of looped rope
Height: 7.23 cm (2.84 inches) Width: 5.58 cm (2.19 inches)
Thickness: 0.73 cm (0.28 inches) Nakago-ana:
Mei: 佐倉士 細川○義 安政三年二月吉日
Sakura-shi Hosokawa ____-yoshi Ansei San-nen Ni-gatsu Kichi-jitsu
This tsuba was offered online some time back and came to my attention when others were discussing its poor condition. I happened to follow the link out of curiosity and was immediately struck by the design. The age, material and design were just the thing I enjoy collecting and to top it off it was offered as the work of a very famous Shinshin-to swordsmith, Hosokawa Masayoshi.
The seller listed the signature as 作陽士 細川正義 (Sakuyô-shi Hosokawa Masayoshi) describing it thus; “The very thick iron tsuba, rope design shaped. This tsuba was made by swordsmith Hosokawa Masayoshi who was Shinshin-to saijo-saku ranking. Hosokawa Masayoshi’s first signature is Morihide. He was born in Shimotsuke province in 1786. His famly was hired by Toda clan, and he became the craftsman hired by Tsuyama clan. He started to engrave signature “Hosokawa Masayoshi” in 1841. There are few tsuba that was made by Hosokawa Masayoshi and those tsuba was made in 1841, 1849, 1856. There fore this tsuba also has historical value.”
The plate appeared to have been very badly rusted or worse burnt. The mei was indistinct in spots, but the kanji was clearly 佐倉士, “Sakura-shi”. There was no certification offered with the piece, and when I checked the Meikan I found no Sakura-Han signature listed for Masayoshi. There were Saku-shi (作士) mei from Mimasaka (美作) but not Sakura, a typo perhaps? In spite of all this I was so taken with the design that I contacted the seller. I will admit I was also a little excited by the prospect of obtaining the work of such a famous smith. It was very modestly priced so I wasn’t too hopeful, but content that I would be receiving a genuine tsuba of unique design and construction.
The Design
The design was what struck me as most appealing, I felt I had seen something similar before but wasn’t sure, since it was most certainly not a common one for tsuba as far as I knew. I was reminded of chain-mail though knowledgeable friends disabused me of that idea and said I should be looking at mon. Sure enough in my mon references I found several similar designs known as 鉄輪 “kana-wa” or metal rings, so it could be chain-mail but according to my little book these represent the five happinesses. There are several variations including just two, three or four rings. One question you have to ask yourself looking at this is, is this three rings or do we include the circle of the seppa-dai as a fourth? And what about that odd square hole?
While pondering these things I happened by pure accident upon the tsuba below by Katsusada in the Shin-Katchushi Meikan by Sasama. Certainly not an exact match but we can see that the idea was out there. I have to say I like both expressions of this idea very much.
Masayoshi versus Tadayoshi
Hosokawa Masayoshi was a student of Suishinshi Masahide, originally from a town in Shimôzuke he became Han-smith for the Utsunomiya family and then for Tsuyama-han in Mimasaka. As a child he showed great promise as a craftsman, his early signature was Masakata, 正方 , after studying with Masahide he changed to Morihide, 守秀 , eventually assuming the name Masayoshi, 正義 , like his father before him.
His signatures include;
正方作 Masakata saku
細川正方作 Hosokawa Masakata saku
野州住正方 Noshû ju Masakata
野州住細川正方造之 Noshû ju Hosokawa Masakata tsukuru kore
細川守秀作 Hosokawa Morihide saku
野州住細川主税介守秀 Noshû ju Hosokawa Chikaranosuke Morihide
野州住人細川守秀 Noshû junin Hosokawa Morihide
作陽正義 Sakuyo Masayoshi
細川正義 Hosokawa Masayoshi
作陽士細川正義 Sakuyo shi Hosokawa Masayoshi
作陽幕下士源正義 Sakuyo Bakkashi Minamoto Masayoshi
作陽幕下士細川正義 Sakuyo Bakkashi Hosokawa Masayoshi
作陽幕下士細川主税佐正義
Sakuyo Bakkashi Hosokawa Chikaranosuke Minamoto Masayoshi
作陽藩東部住細川正義 Sakuyo Han Tobu ju Hosokawa Masayoshi
作陽津山臣細川正義 Sakuyo Tsuyama shin Hosokawa Masayoshi
By far the most common is Sakuyo Bakkashi Hosokawa Masayoshi and as stated you can see many with Sakuyo or Sakushû but I found no Sakura-han or Sakura-shi. If we look at his later signatures we can see that he has dated works from Ansei 2, 3, and 4. According to Tsuneishi he made works at the Edo residence of the Tsuyama Matsudaira family and most of his “Sakuyo” blades were made in Edo.
Masayoshi had four sons the first, Tokutaro died in Bunka 5, 1808. His second son was Kinzô (Tadayoshi), his third was again named Tokutaro (Masatoku) and the fourth was Sennosuke (Masamori). It is my belief that the tsuba in question was made by the second son Tadayoshi.
Hosokawa Kinzô Tadayoshi was born in Edo in the eleventh year of Bunka (文化), when Masayoshi was 29, because his mother was frail, he and his brothers were raised by their grandfather and uncle in Kanuma-juku, Shimôzuke while his father worked and studied in Edo. In Tempo 6 at the age of 21 he moved to Edo where he furthered his studies under his father and I think you can see how closely his work and signature resemble that of his father. He also apprenticed under Suishin-shi Masahide, like his father and grandfather before him, working as Masayuki,正行. Later in Tempo 11, at age 26 he joined his father as han smith for the Tsuyama-han with an annual stipend that allowed for three servants (students?).
While working in Tsuyama, he made yari blades for a Sawari Ryû Sôjutsu practitioner, this school of spear fighting was a traditional practice in Sakura-han, and this may have been the start of his association with Sakura. In Kaei 2, 1849, surely it was his fathers connexions to the Bakufu and the Matsudaira family that helped him secure a position with the Hotta family of Sakura-han. Answering the call of the han lord, Hotta Masayoshi to serve as his official swordsmith.
He worked in Bizen den producing a compact choji-midare hamon and on occasion sugu-ha, and even some Soshû inspired hamon, on blades with a gentler sugata some say than his father. Like his father he cut strong yasuri-mei line by line with a chisel of his own unique creation. From the images below you can see the strong clear finish applied to his nakago. His signatures include;
作陽士源正行 Sakuyo shi Minamoto Masayuki
於総州間宿正行 Oite Soshû Kanjuku Suiryushi Masayuki
於いて総州細川源正行造 Oite Soshû Hosokawa Minamoto Masayuki tsukuru
細川忠義造之 Hosokawa Tadayoshi tsukuru kore
佐倉士細川忠義 Sakura shi Hosokawa Tadayoshi
総州佐倉臣細川忠義造 Sôshu Sakura shin Hosokawa Tadayoshi tsukuru
総州佐倉住源細川忠義造 Sôshu Sakura Ju Minamoto Hosokawa Tadayoshi tsukuru
総州士細川忠義造 Sôshu Sakura shi Hosokawa Tadayoshi tsukuru
From our examples you can also see that he included a kokuin like his fathers based on the characters Hoホ Soソ Kawa川 (see Kaei 5 nen mei). His eldest son Chôjuken Ushinosuke Tadamasa went on to become a smith working for the Nobeoka Han but still signed Soshû Sakura shi Tadamasa. His second son, Yoshinori remained in Sakura working with his father and eventually assuming his position as Han-smith. There are a number of gassaku works between Tadayoshi and Yoshinori, see the Keio 2 nen mei.
Tadayoshi died relatively young at the age of 56 in Meiji 3 nen (1870), he had witnessed the coming of the barbarians, saw the collapse of the Tokugawa bakufu in the service of one of its most forward-thinking lords and lived to see the establishment of a modern government under a new emperor.
Saku-shu vs Sakura-shi
Masayoshi signed Saku-shû Tsuyama jû (作州津山住) while Tadayoshi signed Sakura-shi (佐倉士) and clearly the Sa character could with a little help be made to look like the Saku character. It is possible this is what someone tried to do to this little tsuba. The key character, the Tada character, is almost completely lost. This too could have been removed to make it easier to pass this off as the work of Masayoshi.
Now I am convinced this is the work of the student Tadayoshi and not the teacher, Masayoshi as I said. The motivation for making this up to be the work of Masayoshi is clear enough, and there would be in some folks opinion, little reward, save my own satisfaction, in proving it otherwise. Afterall I own it now and have basically made a case for it being of little value to anyone but me. However there is another aspect of this little piece to consider, one that I think adds great appeal, and here again I may be all out to sea.
Saku-shû is another name for Mimasaka, the province just inland of Bizen, in fact much of it was once part of Bizen province. It was split off and then further divided with Tsuyama being the capital of one of the smaller han that made up the greater province.
Tsuyama han was ruled by a branch of the Matsudaira family descended from Hideyasu. To think that this tsuba was made in a time of considerable tumult for the Tokugawa family and its branch families, including this branch of the Matsudaira would be for a history buff like myself very appealing.
But what of Sakura-han? Sakura castle built by Chiba Suketane, was the base for the Kunô and Matsudaira families before being rebuilt by the Doi Family in 1610, when it was enlarged and improved upon. Not long after it changed hands again passing to several families until it was given in fief to the Hotta family in 1745.
Not far from Sakura castle, there was a large smithy, Kajisaku, established by the Han early in the Edo period. The Kunitomo gunsmiths worked here as well as Fujieda Haruhiro among others. It seems that some Edo smiths may have traveled out here to work in what was a kind of forge for hire. Students of Masahide, like Masayoshi and Tadayoshi may also have rented workspace here and this may be the true origin of Tadayoshis’ Sakura connexion, though there are other theories.
Hotta Masamori 正盛 was a loyal retainer of the Tokugawa who took his own life upon the death of the Shogun Iemitsu. His son Masatoshi 正俊 was raised by Kasuga no Tsubone and he in turn served Tokugawa Ietsuna, serving in some of the highest positions in his government.
A family loyal to the Shoguns for generations, even to the end, the 6th generation Hotta Lord, Masayoshi 正陸 , was to serve in most difficult times. Succeeding Abe Masahiro he was Roju, the highest councilor of state, when the Tokugawa Bakufu faced the question of opening the country to foreign intercourse.
He led his own Han in a campaign to reform their military introducing European arms, battlefield tactics, medicine and other technologies. At the same time he extolled the men of his clan to redouble their practice of traditional martial arts and may have brought in craftsmen specifically to support these efforts. It was because of these reforms that he was seen as one of the most active, well-informed and progressive Daimyo of his time.
It was he that formed a special task force within the bakufu to deal with the foreign problem, it was he that negotiated the details of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Townsend Harris. It was he that went to Kyoto to try unsuccessfully to convince the Emperor and his court to sign the treaty. It was partly under his leadership that the first Embassy to these United States was dispatched from Japanese shores. Unfortunately by that time he had been used as scapegoat, removed from his position and locked under house arrest, never to witness the new world that was emerging.
The Signature
Comparing the signatures of the father Masayoshi and his son Tadayoshi you can see how closely the latter followed Masayoshi’s style. If you look at Masayoshi’s signature you can see that he signed his four character name using characters of differeing size sorta of like Small – Hoso, large – Kawa, small – Masa, large – Yoshi, if you imagine the characters fitting into squares and rectangles you’ll see what I mean.
Other Tsuba
Below find some of Tadayoshi’s other sword-guards while they are all iron, they all seem to be a bit different from one another. Besides different styles of sword-making he seems to have experimented with tsuba styles and I would add they all seem to show exceptional skill for a sword-maker. Also included is wonderful kozuka by this artist.
That Hole
You will notice he includes udenuki-ana on several of his tsuba, something that is associated with Satsuma and the warrior-class of Kyushu, not at all typical for someone working so close to Edo and the Tokugawa bakufu, but was very popular in the Bakumatsu.
On the kana-wa tsuba, my tsuba, you will notice an odd cut out opposite the kogai-ana. This would most likely have been on the ura when mounted. At first one would think that this was done to remove the “忠” character thus to make it easier to see this as the work of Masayoshi. However all sides of the cut out are square save one, which slants outward making one end of the opening larger than the other. The larger end is on the ura of the plate, as if there was an effort made to avoid cutting out the mei. Looking at the rust in the openings it all appears to be of the same age, suggesting this odd hole was cut at the same time as the other openings. There is sufficient room for the signature though it does look like the cut came after it was signed.
What could this odd opening be for if not to remove part of the signature? My immediate thought was of a lock, like the ones commonly found on Gun-to koshirae. This style of lock called a Chûha-dome, 駐爪留め, in Japanese has many variations but it was during the exact time that this smith was working that they became popular, especially on Toppei-koshirae.
Now I imagine and, you can take that for what its worth, this little tsuba on a toppei-koshirae made for some Sakura-han retainer engaged in the business of studying western military science in response to the times, in obedience of his far-sighted lord and in service to his country.
(I include below a photo of a Bakumatsu period koshirae to illustrate)
Below some images of my tsuba as provided by the seller:
In 1860 the very first embassy from Japan travelled across the Pacific and landed at San Francisco. Two of the Kanrin-maru’s sailors unfortunately lost their lives to illness while here. They became the first Japanese buried on American soil, this last photo is of our little tsuba at the memorial of those two sailors;
Hotta Masayoshi was promoted to Roju the second time in November of 1856. Now there is no evidence that this little piece was made for him, but it was made by his han swordsmith in that very year, so that we can say with almost certainty that it has breathed the same air. If you don’t believe in coincidence then there must be a reason that this piece would find its way all the way to America after all these years, where it could be recognized and appreciated for what it truly is by one whose eccentric pursuits place an object like this at the very center of his studies.
End part 1
Thursday, July 14, 2011