Copper, shakudo and gold. Japan, 19th cent.
A sightly smaller, simpler designed piece, presenting a compact nanakoji on both parts, three rings (in the manner of the Olympics) respectively on the right side – this pattern is called kanawa, it can be only two or many rings. The embossing on the ground within the ring field is much finer. The symbolic background of the rings is harmony, perfection, integrity etc.
SIZE (F) 3,25 CM, (K) 2,8 CM
From the collection of Dr. Karl Florenz (1865-1939)
Dr. Karl Florenz was a renowned scholar, university professor and considered a pioneer of German Japanese studies. He resided in Japan from 1888 until the beginning of the First World War and then continued his lectures at the Hamburg Colonial Institute, never returning to Japan again. Famed for having translated several important Japanese books including the Nihongi, Japan’s oldest official history text, he was awarded the Japanese doctor title in literature. His extensive collection was largely destroyed by air strikes in the Second World War (which he himself did not live to witness), however, most tsuba etc. survived in relatively good condition. Dr. Florenz primarily collected tsubas dating to the 18th cent. and quite evidently made an effort to explore a wide range of motifs.