A Ryôka Tieguai Tsuba (了嘉)

Kawamura Tsuneshige – who stamped his work with the penname Ryôka – was a mid-Edo period metalsmith working in Edo (present-day Tokyo) within the Nara tradition. A student of Nara Shigetsugu, his speciality was rendering figures from Chinese and Japanese legend, and he worked almost exclusively in brass. He rarely signed his work, which makes this piece – stamped with his seal on the reverse – considerably more collectible than the majority of his output.

The subject is Tieguai (known in Japan as Tekkai), one of the Eight Immortals of the Taoist pantheon. Despite his dishevelled appearance – the result of his spirit having been forced to inhabit the body of a recently deceased beggar – Tieguai is a benevolent figure, dispensing medicine from his gourd to the poor. Ryôka captures him in characteristically gruff form, rendered in sunken relief against the stone-like textured brass surface, with pine and bamboo on the reverse. The defining feature, and the reason this tsuba stops people in their tracks, is the eyes: Tieguai’s gaze is achieved through inlaid crystals, an extremely rare technique, which lend an uncanny, almost animate quality to the piece – they appear to follow you regardless of the angle at which you hold it.

The NBTHK Hozon certificate, issued in 2018, confirms the attribution to Ryôka (Tsuneshige) and notes the elongated round shape, brass construction, stone-like surface, sunken relief, gold accents, crystal eyes, and angular rim. The tsuba is presented in its original fitted box and comes with a printed description.