Title: Shumi no tsuba : 500 shi
Author: Tessei Nakamura
Publisher: Tankenkyūkai, 1965
Language: Japanese
Illustrations: Black and white pictures
Other: 165 pages, 27 cm by 19 cm, hardcover
Topics: Tōsōgu
ID: B0239
Tessei Nakamura explains in his foreword that he wanted to write this book as a follow up to his magistral “Tsuba shūsei” (1963), for people to make it easy to see many similar pieces close together, in an easier to read book.
Book Review: Shumi no tsuba : 500 shi by Tessei Nakamura
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Jo Anseeuw
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Re: Book Review: Shumi no tsuba : 500 shi by Tessei Nakamura
Even black and white it looks like a beautiful book.
I learnt a new reading of a Kanji today, thank you. The word Sugata 姿 means silhouette, figure, outline or shape, etc. The 'Kun' reading of 'sugata' we are all familiar with, but the 'On' reading of Shi was new to me. I think we could say '500 Silhouettes' if we ever had to translate it.
Many years ago a kind friend gave me a starter collection of tsuba. Gradually it built up to around 50 tsuba, and one day I took them round to my sword sensei for his evaluation. One by one he picked them up and tossed them aside, "No good..., no..., nope..., mattaku dame..., rubbish ..." and on and on it went. A couple of badly rusted ones he admitted for hospital treatment. Finally he said "Piers, instead of buying 10 tsuba @ ￥10,000 each, just buy one good one for ￥100,000."
Since then I have de-cluttered, pulled my socks up and attempted to aim higher, constrained only by my limited budget.
I now definitely need another house clearout, but this second collection is better than my first, and perhaps ten or fifteen of them are even quite good.
I learnt a new reading of a Kanji today, thank you. The word Sugata 姿 means silhouette, figure, outline or shape, etc. The 'Kun' reading of 'sugata' we are all familiar with, but the 'On' reading of Shi was new to me. I think we could say '500 Silhouettes' if we ever had to translate it.
Many years ago a kind friend gave me a starter collection of tsuba. Gradually it built up to around 50 tsuba, and one day I took them round to my sword sensei for his evaluation. One by one he picked them up and tossed them aside, "No good..., no..., nope..., mattaku dame..., rubbish ..." and on and on it went. A couple of badly rusted ones he admitted for hospital treatment. Finally he said "Piers, instead of buying 10 tsuba @ ￥10,000 each, just buy one good one for ￥100,000."
Since then I have de-cluttered, pulled my socks up and attempted to aim higher, constrained only by my limited budget.
I now definitely need another house clearout, but this second collection is better than my first, and perhaps ten or fifteen of them are even quite good.