Tsuba with Stone Rabbit with a Blossoming Plum Branch

Description On the right of this tsuba is a stone rabbit with a branch of plum blossoms in its back. Two birds fly over the central opening. A stream is shown at the lower left. Rabbits are one of the zodiac animals and often depicted in Japanese art. On the reverse are a pine branch by a river and a full moon at the upper right.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] 寶真斎　壽景; [Translation] Hôshinsai/Toshikage; [Date] 元治黄子中秋; [Transliteration] Genji ki-no-e ne chûshû/(kao); [Translation] Mid-autumn, Genji year of the rat (1864)

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters