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Antique Japanese Chato Wooden Doctors Sword browse these categories for related items... All Items: Japanese: Carvings: Wood: Pre 1920: item #964574 Please refer to our stock #MOR2751 when inquiring.
2,200.00 |
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| An unusual chato (tea room sword) in the shape of a broken bamboo pole carved with poetry on one side and signed kansaiŠ°ŤĆ. Twigs form the rings for suspending the tie strings and the menuki. The simulated Kozuka (knife) can be removed to expose a double compartment for stamp ink and storage. Between the handle and the menuki is an inkwell, which would have contained cotton soaked with ink, and it is likely a brush would have been once contained in the scabbard. The piece is 16-1/2 inches (42 cm) long. There are some stress cracks in the scabbard portion, otherwise is in fine condition. It is said that these were produced from the mid to late Edo period, in lieu of swords for those not allowed to carry weapons (all but samurai). During the Edo it is true that commoners wore them to ward off evildoers at night, generally heavier versions which would double as a truncheon, and later as statements of fashion akin to other sagemono. We have found however that their production lasted through the opening years of the 20th century, as long accustomed ornaments of fashion in the tea room (where even samurai were not allowed bladed weapons). To the repertoire of bokuto and doctors sword, we thus add the name Chato, or tea sword, as they were commonly referred to in Kyoto. As with other members of the sagemono group, they were most often made by carvers of Netsuke. This is from a collection of scholar items we are currently offering from the estate of a Kyoto family involved in literati and art movements from the later Edo period on. | ||||||||||||||
