Featured Antique Japanese Sword Handle

Hi folks,


this is a handle/hilt/tsuka of a japanese short sword? and I‘d like to know more about it.

It’s definitely antique and probably dates back to the Meiji-era (1868 to 1912), late 19th century, but thats only a guess.
Made of ivory and presumably carved out of one piece, very three-dimensional and sculptural.
It’s about 15cm long, weighs ~174g and has a circumference of ~13.5cm.
There’s many obvious and some subtle symbolism / storytelling, but I cannot decode anything. The dragon and the strange wolf-bear-dog creature catched my „western“ eye.
On the Inside there’s hard wood and residue of skin/bone glue.

Would love to hear your opinion and thought on this one.

Thanks a lot,

Simon

 

Can't help, buy boy is that cool!

 

Isn't it?
It’s a really nice piece, amazing craftsmanship and so much details,

 

C'est Magnifique...Merci!
Damn fine pics, too...

How, where & when acquired?
Gotta be a good story in that lovely bauble...

 

very nice.

 

Totally jealous! That is an amazing piece of craftsmanship.

 

It is stunning, amazing craftsmanship.

I think it is a Japanese macaque, also an important symbol in Japan. There seems to be a religious theme.

 

A large part of the appeal (for me, anyway) is that it's not just an okimono...but looks to have been purpose-made to be used; with the highly-crafted an' strongly evocative representation of perhaps mythical individuals an' creatures as secondary considerations.
What the blade an' other accessories must have been like is hard to imagine...but they all were sure to have been of a kind with this tsuka.
Overall...what a Masterpiece!

 

Wow,beautiful detail! Very cool indeed.. What’s the story with this? Where’s the rest of it?

 

The creature appears to have a long tail, which the macaques don't. Perhaps it is a Japanese Tsushima leopard cat or Iriomote cat.



Or a mythological animal.

 

Thank you all for your replies!
There’s indeed a long tale, so Japanese Tsushima leopard or iriomote cat is a very good guess.

I sadly don’t have much information about this beautiful piece. It has been aquired incomplete like in the pictures in France and I‘ll hopefully get some more information about it soon.
I‘ll keep you up to date
The incompleteness is pretty sad, because the full story of the carvings remain unknown. Would be super nice to see them. The scabbard was probably much longer. The size would be like this piece:
https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/181-a-japanese-carved-ivory-short-sword/?lot=424692&sd=1

Those japanese bone/ivory carved short swords where pretty common in the 19th century, but many of them seem less plastic and detailled. The piece above has very nice carvings, too.

 

It does look nice.

I suspect not a sword hilt simply because there seems to be no way to anchor it to a tang. Maybe made after the Meiji restoration when the producers of swords, sword furnishings, netsuke and the like turned to non-functional carving of objects still based on the old forms.

Maybe things like this were produced to affix to a sword on display, but it seems to me that when blades are displayed, the tang is exposed - the display is all blade, and only blade.

 

You’re right!
The piece has a pretty wide circumference and therefore isn’t very functional and practical. Maybe more a piece for representative purposes. But a sword hilt is my best guess, the one in the link above is pretty similar.
The attatchae display thing is a great guess!

 

maybe a scabbard ....not the hilt..?

 

Very nice

 

It's got nice,deep well-done modeling to it.

 

Had that thought, too. But the carvings would be upside down

 

I don't see what you see.

also....the interior slot is consistent to where a blade would enter......

 

missing that extra ivory cap...

 

Sorry!!! You‘re right! The direction is correct, because the sword is viewed upside down. It’s a scabbard missing the ivory cap, which probably loosened over the years and wasn’t reglued and then got lost/separated from the rest. It was stated as hilt to me, but it’s indeed the scabbard. So it’s not from a short sword, rather from a dagger/knife or kaiken? https://www.geishasblade.com/shop/tanto/kaiken/
Thanks! That’s great to know. Makes it even more sad, though.

According to my research this scenerio seems possible:
https://medium.com/exploring-histor...d-with-samurai-swords-after-wwii-c0e821d74569

Maybe a previous owner took only the scabbard and the knife was taken?
That’s the cool thing about collecting antiques, the story behind every piece