68 - YOSHICHIKA: A SUPERB HAMANO SCHOOL SUAKA ‘SONGOKU AND THE FIVE FINGER MOUNTAIN’ TSUBA

YOSHICHIKA: A SUPERB HAMANO SCHOOL SUAKA ‘SONGOKU AND THE FIVE FINGER MOUNTAIN’ TSUBA Signed Yoshichika Japan, Bakumatsu era (1853-1867) Of aorigata form with a gently raised rounded rim, the suaka ground meticulously worked throughout with a dense pattern of minute Y-shaped punches. Masterfully decorated in takabori and richly inlaid in shakudo, shibuichi, silver, and gold to depict the Monkey King Songoku riding upon swirling clouds, his magical staff held diagonally across his body and a writing brush raised triumphantly above his head. Before him rise five towering finger-like peaks, representing the five fingers of Buddha which Songoku mistakes for pillars at the very edge of the universe. The reverse is similarly worked with a temple and pagoda emerging dramatically from scrolling clouds. Signed to the front YOSHICHIKA. HEIGHT 8.4 cm, WIDTH 8.3 cm HEIGHT 2.2 cm (nakago-ana) THICKNESS 0.4 cm (seppa-dai) WEIGHT 246.4 g Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear. Songoku, known in Chinese as Sun Wukong, is the celebrated Monkey King of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The present tsuba depicts one of the most famous episodes in the story. After wreaking havoc in Heaven, Songoku boasts that even Buddha cannot contain him. Buddha challenges him to leap beyond the palm of his hand, whereupon the Monkey King soars to what he believes is the very edge of the universe. There he encounters five immense pillars and marks one with his brush as proof of his achievement. Upon returning, however, Songoku discovers that the five pillars were in fact Buddha’s fingers and that he had never escaped his palm. Buddha then overturns his hand and imprisons the humbled Monkey King beneath the Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years. The five towering forms and the brush raised in Songoku’s hand identify this celebrated episode with particular clarity. Museum comparison: Compare a related Hamano school sentoku tsuba depicting Songoku riding on a cloud and blowing upon his hairs, by Iwama Masayoshi, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 11.5459. Auction comparison: Compare a related Hamano school tsuba depicting Songoku in a different episode from Journey to the West, signed Hamano Noriyuki, 8.5 cm diameter, at Zacke, Fine Japanese Art, 14 June 2024, Vienna, lot 253 (sold for EUR 16,900 or approx. EUR 18,100 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).