How was it made? Tsuba (Japanese sword guard) | V&A

This film shows the making of a replica sword guard (tsuba) in our collection. The original tsuba is the work of the master metalworker Gotō Mitsuaki (Hojō, 16th Master of the Gotō School, 1816 - 1856).
Using the same materials and techniques as those found on the original, UK-based craftsman Ford Hallam demonstrates the meticulous skills he has developed studying traditional Japanese metalworking techniques in the late 1980s, under the guidance of Izumi Koshirō Sensei in Tokyo.
The copying of historical masterpieces is known in Japan as utsushi and has long been regarded as an important form of training for students who seek to understand the processes involved in the making of an original work.
Find out more: www.vam.ac.uk/collections/japan

[@arikkraft5755]

I could tell straight away this was Ford Hallam's work. Absolutely gorgeous.

[@CoronaSunrise]

Yeah, I thought so even before the reading the discription.

[@jhcc289]

Same.

[@FordHallam]

thank you, it's always nice to be appreciated. 🙂

[@valkyrievalor9382]

The men who made these are master craftsmen! Each small detail painstakingly undertook in order to form a beautiful piece of art!

[@marthaross6301]

Amazing craftsmanship Thanks ☺️

[@jimmysgameclips]

2:37 this is just absolutely lovely

[@gf2390]

Ford Hallam is an amazing maker. I visited the VA museum around 7 or 8 years ago and spent the whole time looking at the Samurai items.

[@user-xs8by9zu2s]

日本文化を大事に保存紹介してくれる貴方達に感謝します☺︎ thank you

[@Oldtanktapper]

Beautiful craftsmanship! If you liked this, I’d highly recommend you look up some of Ford Hallam’s videos where he goes into great detail about the methods and materials used.

[@josephmessner5312]

Interesting process to watch. Thanks for sharing !!

[@paulkozowyk]

This is a fantastic video. However, I don’t think that tar is used to hold it in place. Matsuyani is generally made of rosin/resin. Sometimes this is referred to as pitch, as is thick tar (hence the confusion), but in this case it is not pitch from tar.

[@biljanavukotic8708]

Wow great,merci

[@r1738]

Ford Hallam?

[@evgenygaleev3665]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2GWgoSZftF2ibc

[@nessliestrife993]

Which way does the design face?

[@bendreis7191]

:o

[@powaikargaming196]

We want Bhavani Talwar in back to India

[@gyorgykovacs2511]

It's a hand guard. Not a sword guard.🤘

[@angelus_solus]

To start off with, people can keep their butthurt, self-righteous, passive-aggressive troll replies to themselves. I can't be bothered with them and posting them does nothing but show how much of an egotistical adult child the poster is. Tsuba weren't meant to protect the hand from sword strikes, they were meant to keep the right hand from slipping up onto the blade. The majority of tsuba were made from iron or shibuichi, which was an alloy of 75% copper and 25% silver. Not mentioning this fact only creates a false precedence. Matsuyani isn't tar. It's a mix of rosin, vegetable oil, charcoal and fire clay. The artificial patination process is niiro and the patina itself is niage, not shakudo which is the alloy being demonstrated. Niage is an important Japanese patina, and one of the most basic, made by treating the piece with copper sulphate and roshuko dissolved in water. It has been used as the base colour on copper and copper alloys for centuries, and today it is also used as a final patina. On copper, it creates a bronze brown, a pale green on brass and grey to dark grey on shibuichi. The museum who made this video needs to check their facts better.

[@outsideiskrrtinsideihurt699]

They were originally meant for hand protection. Before the edo period, tsuba were huge up to 10-11cm in diameter. This is reflected in other Asian disc guards which were adopted from Japan. During japans edo period they shrunk in size due to fashion and are still small to this day ~7.5cm in diameter. The same did not happen in mainland Asia where the disc guards on swords were still big and used for hand protection.

[@paulkozowyk]

Glad I’m not the only one who was irked by the matsuyani being called tar! Crazy how such a big museum could get some simple facts so wrong.

[@angelus_solus]

@@paulkozowyk Worse yet are those who support these errors. Edit: Ford Hallam actually made a full on Twitter attack against me for saying it! I simply deleted and reposted my comment

[@jaczob666]

Takes months to complete one!? What a waste of time.

[@FordHallam]

That rather depends on one's perspective. What do you do with your time that you feel is so much more significant to you or anyone else?

[@angelus_solus]

@@FordHallam Are passive-aggressive troll replies all you know how to give to people you don't agree with? If they think it's a waste of time to spend months on something to put on the shelf or hang on the wall, then who are you to attack them over it under some pretence of an innocent question? An egotistical butthurt adult child with no shred of humility, whose lively hood and passion is being challenged as legitimate...that's who. 🙄 Honestly the level of juvenile attitude in your replies and comments, not to mention arrogantly devoting an entire video to mocking and trolling someone else's opinion, is what made me lose all respect for you and unsubscribe from your channel. You might be an accomplished artist, but you're a poor example of a decent human being. Your success has certainly gone to your head and inflated your ego. Edit: By the way, I hope you had fun wasting your time with such an elaborate troll reply on my comment as well. I know exactly how to deal with trolls any more, and you will never get a reply to it, because it no longer exists. 😁 I didn't even bother reading it to be honest. All I did was scan it over because it amounted to nothing but "I'm so full of myself. How much do you know, you simple minded peasant?" Don't bother wasting your time replying to this either, because it will be ignored. Although I know your ego won't rest until it gets the last word. Thing is, I can't be bothered to deal with any more of your pretentiousness, and I don't care how much this bruises your ego either.

[@neverspreadjamonabadjer8459]

The same could be said of the nine months you spent in your mother's womb.