Afternoon tea and tsuba

After a hard day's shopping in downtown Osaka, there is always the vexed question of where to go for a bit of a rest and refreshment. This is particularly true at the weekend, when everywhere you try seems to have been invaded by an army of jaded shoppers. If you are inclined to spend a little on your luxuries, you can't do much better than the St. Regis Hotel, Honmachi, just a few minutes walk from the busy Shinsaibashi area.

Skip the enticing tearoom on the ground floor, and head straight for the St. Regis Bar on the 12th. Don't be put off by the atmosphere of refined opulence as you pass through the lobby, or the sequestered hush as you approach the imposing entrance to the bar, with its air of a gentleman's club - it makes a very nice place to spend a while over a pot of tea.

But why is this of any interest to you?

Well, the theme of the bar is Momoyama Japan, and for anyone with a passing interest in Japanese swords or related themes, it should prove quite an interesting experience. There are no actual swords or tsuba on display, but the stylish decor is all planned with this theme in mind. Some of the elements are quite well-hidden, but come as a pleasant surprise as you notice them.

One thing you will notice, however, is the large painting behind the bar, which is by the contemporary painter Yamaguchi Akira.  He is an artist who certainly deserves his recognition - he combines fine draughtsmanship with a quirky but sensitive humour (in the manner of W. Heath Robinson) with an interest and appreciation of historical themes, while using western materials (water colour and oils) to mimic traditional Japanese painting styles. He did some nice illustrations for the 'Duelling Geniuses' show at the Tokyo National Museum a few years back, which was organised on an 'X vs Y' theme.
This is a screen shot from their promotional website:

Kano Eitoku vs Hasegawa Tohaku

I was thinking of him recently: he had an exhibition at Oyamazaki Sanso (a small, 1920's villa between Kyoto and Osaka) last year - he completed most of his works at the villa, which also happens to be very close to the site of the Battle of Yamazaki, in which Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide, (who had killed Oda Nobunaga shortly before). The current year-long Taiga drama has just dealt with this episode, and as I was passing on the train, my mind ran back to the exhibition. What should I see that very same day, but this work by him. Actually, seeing works by particular artists can be a bit of a hit and miss thing in Japan: there are few standing public collections with permanent exhibitions, and private museums often suffer from a lack of space, so they are perpetually showing different portions of their collections. Being able to see the work of a contemporary artist is even more difficult, so this was a nice opportunity, and it's nice to know it's there all the time.

A close up of the painting behind the bar, showing the Tsutenkaku

The theme is Osaka no Ran - the Seige of Osaka Castle, in the common semi-panoramic style employed for cityscapes in the Momoyama and Edo periods, complete with gold leaf clouds for spacial transitions, but it also features a number of motifs from the modern city, including the instantly recognizable Tsutenkaku - the much loved (so I am told) tower at Tennoji.

The rest of the bar, including the high ceiling, are in keeping with this theme - less symbolism than motif, of course. Here is one of the door handles:

..and here is one of the mirrors.

And lets not forget the karesansui rock garden, complete with strolling path and a view over the city.


Very nice and highly recommended.

Musashi Tsuba

From the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum

After spending some time looking at the Yagyu tsuba, I thought it was only fair to take a similar look at the tsuba that Miyamoto Musashi made. When I say made, although it is by no means certain to what extent he was actualy involved in their manufacture, his skills as an artist are not in doubt, so it is likely that he was more involved in the work than Yagyu Renyasai; I imagine he actually drew out the designs at some stage and, as we know he had skill as a wood-carver, may even have made maquettes (wooden models) and quite likely worked the metal himself. It is also fairly likely that, when he lived as a guest of the Hosokawa family in his later years, that he would have been able to work with skilled artisans in the same way that Renyasai did.

There are two designs that have come down to us that are normally credited to Musashi. The first might, more properly, be regarded as his version of an already existing design. This is his namako or sea cucumber/sea slug design. Several different versions of this exist, differing only slightly, that were made by him or under supervision, but as anyone who has ever googled 'Musashi' and 'tsuba' will know, it is extremely popular as a design for replica swords, both on account of its connection with Musashi and its elegant simplicity (and thus ease of reproduction).

Although the term namako is used independently to refer to this vaguely slug-shaped design in a variety of contexts, I think Musashi may have been purposely referencing the sea cucumber, given that his other tsuba design, the namazu and hyotan (catfish and gourd) is strongly linked to the same principle characteristic - slipperiness.

This is another variation - I believe it is authentic and belongs to a private collector

The slippery sea slug
If you want more on this, you will have to see Robin D. Gill's book, 'Rise, Ye Sea Slugs', an anthology of sea cucumber poetry, but just a couple of the poems he includes will give you an idea:


Sanehira no te o suberitaru namako kana
It even gave
the slip to Sanehira (i.e. it slipped from his hands)
sea slug sashimi
- Chosui (1700-1769)

Shingen mo hashi ni kufu no namako kana
Even Shingen
had to improvise
eating sea slug (with chopsticks)
-Somaru (1712-1795)

From the Musashi Shiryokan in Mimasaka City

The slippery catfish
The saying 'hyotan de namako wo osaeru' (to hold down a catfish with a gourd) has two closely related meanings - one denotes the impossibility of an endeavor, while the other is somewhat similar to 'as slippery as an eel'. The theme has a long connection with Zen, starting, as far as anyone has been able to reliably ascertain, with a painting by  Josetsu, Hyonenzu, which is usually translated as 'Catching a catfish with a gourd'. The theme was suggested by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, and above the painting itself are 31 poems brushed by important Zen monks commenting on the difficulty or non-sensical nature of the task. Since then, the theme has been used as an illustration of the difficulty of attaining enlightenment through rational means. As Dave Lowry noted in an old column in Black Belt magazine, the solution is to leave the gourd and allow the curious catfish to find its own way in.

However, if we are using the image in the sense of pinning down the catfish, it is the slippery nature of both the gourd and the fish that are important. The fact that Musashi used the theme of slipperiness on two tsuba designs seems to point to an important aspect of his swordsmanship. The gourd itself had a very similar role as a symbol in the teachings of the Kashima Shinryu, and presumeably also in Yagyu swordsmanship, (there are references to it in poems by Yagyu Sekishusai and in the tsuba designs of Renyasai) relating to the difficulty of pressing down a buoyant gourd underwater. This image almost exactly parallels that of the catfish and the gourd - once you think you have it, it has wriggled out from underneath your sword. I believe this refers to the sensitivity necessary in pressing down an opponent's blade, as well as the irrepressible fluidity the swordsman sought to develop himself.

Other tsuba associated with Musashi

As well as the tsuba he designed, Musashi used a variety of tsuba on his own swords - although one portrait does appear to show the namako tsuba on his sword, the well-known self-portrait does not. I haven't visited the Shimada Art Museum in Kumamoto, but  believe there is a tsuba with a cherry blossom design which is said to have been owned by Musashi. I can find no hard information on it, but I believe it may be this one, which is owned by the museum, and is certainly very beautiful.

Intriguingly, the bridge over the Miyamotogawa in the village of Ohara, which claims to be the birth-place of Musashi, and has done its best to lure the tourists hither, displays both a cherry blossom tsuba design and the common namako design. Whether this was a whim of the artist or based on some hard facts, I have no idea.

Quick edit... I was looking at the design as a sukashi tsuba...with the dark bits cut out...of course it is actually the design in the photo above - I just didn't realise it until now.




I was going to write something about Musashi koshirae, but I think that will have to wait for next time or I'll never get this up!