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"The pictorial design is brought out in low relief and kebori (incised carving of minute, hair-like quality) with a very sparing use of gold, such as the cap on the figure at the right and the bracelet and eye ball of the demon at the left. In the preface to the Kokinshu, a collection of ancient and modern poetry, completed in the year 922, Ki no Tsurayuki has used the expression that ‘gods and demons invisible to our eyes are touched with sympathy by poetry.’ It is the writer’s interpretation that Masayuki on this tsuba has taken Kakinomoto Hitmoaro, who is known as the saint of Japanese verse, to represent the embodiment of poetry as he leans, with brush in hand, upon his low writing table and genially watches the horned and hairy demon grind his ink for him upon the ink-stone. Both figures are continued in engraving and low relief on the reverse side. This arrangement of design seems to have been a favorite custom with Masayuki, another specimen in The Field Museum having the fore part of an elephant in high relief on the obverse side of the tsuba, while the form is completed on the reverse” (Gunsaulus 1923:93).
The founder of the Hamano school was one named Shozui or Masayuki, and is considered one of the most noted pupils of Toshinaga I of the Nara school. Many of the designs for this school are taken from the history and folk-lore of Japan, although the nature scenes produced by this school are very original. Masayuki was a very flexible artist, and was known to use a large variety or metals to produce both high and low relief depictions on his tsuba (Gunsaulus 1923:92-93, Rucker 1924:lvii-lviii).
(Commentary by Rob Nalewajk)
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