Shakudo And Gold Tsuba; Goto Style. Asia. Japan, Edo Period.

A shakudo tsuba inlaid with a basket of chrysanthemums surrounded by butterflies. The inlays are made of shakudo and sentoku, overlaid with gold in shades of green and yellow. The simple and understated design is exceptionally elegant; the goldsmith’s workmanship is of the highest quality. The artist chose a very fine graining tool to execute the nanako technique, which is all the more challenging given the small size of the grains. There are 800 grains per square centimeter, or 40,000 to 50,000 grains for the entire tsuba. The uniformity of the grains and their small size are the mark of an excellent goldsmith who did not deem it necessary to sign his work, as his nanako technique was inimitable in his time, unless the patron held such a high social rank that it would have been disrespectful for an artist—even a prominent one—to affix his signature. Probably the work of the Goto family, 18th or 19th century. Japan, Edo period. 76 mm x 4 mm.