Tsuba with Lovers Behind Sliding Doors

Description This tsuba depicts the scene in a garden immediately outside a home. At the right is a building, with a veranda and rice paper doors. At the left, a water basin sits on a stump before a reed fence. Behind the fence, a cherry tree is shown in bloom. In the foreground at the bottom are the rock and step leading to the house. The doors are moveable. When opened, they reveal a scene of two lovers inside the house. Along the bottom of the reverse is a stream with a bridge and birds.

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

Inscriptions [Date] 天保元庚寅仲春; [Transliteration] Tenpô gen tsuchi-no-e tora chûshun; [Translation] second month in the first year of Tenpo (1830), the year of the tiger; [Signature] 石黒政常; [Translation] Ishiguro Masatsune

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters