AKASAKA TADASHIGE

7.6cm x 7.4cm Signed Tadashige. NBTHK Hozon

Motif is Kissho zukushi, assorted symbols of good fortune – ginger leaves, fans and tea whisks are interconnected by wild geese.  The entire design is encircled by the rim which is in the form of a chrysanthemum.

Akasaka Tadashige

According to Kazutaro Torigoye in his book, Tsuba – An aesthetic Study (pp.134-135) “Excluding the three great masters of Akasaka school, Tadamasa I, Tadamasa II, and Tadatora, Tadashige is the only highly regarded person among many students of the Akasaka school.”

Robert E. Haynes writes, “Among the students of the Akasaka school, the work of Tadashige should be noted. He was one of the later workers of the school but was superior in ability to all the other students. In fact, his work compares favorably with that of the first three generations. He was an innovator and reformer who hoped to raise the standards of the Akasaka school to its former prominence. Though he was the student of the first Tadatoki (4th Akasaka), he easily surpassed his teacher in ability. Unfortunately, only his work reached the heights he so diligently sought. His work may be easily identified because of its superior quality and in cases where it might be confused with the work of the first three generations, it will be younger in appearance than the work of his early masters. Also, he was the first of this school to use kuchibeni at the top and bottom of the nakago-ana, very much in the same style as those used by the Suruga school. This artist is one of the few late Edo age workers who successfully returned to the superior quality of the early artisans of his school and was able to equal their greatness”….

Tadashige (1730-1816) is said to be the brother of the second Tadatoki and the student of the first Tadatoki. He lived in Kyobashi and is reported to have been an artist at the court of the Daimyo at Tosa. Rated as Jo-ko.