Description
This tsuba combines five of the celebrated flowers of autumn. The uppermost stalk on the right is pampas grass. Below that are maiden flowers, arrowroot and Chinese bell flowers. A tendril of bush clover crosses along the bottom on the tsuba. These flowers and grasses were regularly invoked in Japanese poetry and painting to signify autumn.
Provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Inscriptions
[Signature] 壽岳斎 石黒政美彫之; [Transliteration] Jugakusai Ishiguro Masayoshi kore o horu; [Translation] Engraved by Jugakusai Ishiguro Masayoshi; [Date] 文政七甲秋造之; [Transliteration] Bunsei shichi saru shu kore o zo; [Translation] Made in the autumn of the year of the monkey, seventh year of Bunsei (1824)
Credit
Acquired by Henry Walters
