How is it Made? Tsuba (sword guard)

This short film shows the making a replica of a sword guard (tsuba) in the V&A’s collection. The 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, the UK-based craftsman Ford Hallam demonstrates the meticulous skills he has developed since 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 the student who seeks to understand the processes involved in the making of the original work. The making of the full utsushi in fact takes many months of intensely focused work, not least in the application of the meticulous and finely hammered nanako ground.

Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/japan

Видео How is it Made? Tsuba (sword guard) канала Victoria and Albert Museum