Hikone Bori Soten School Tsuba.
Mei: SOTEN.
2nd. generation. Signed with a full thin signature.

Early Edo period.

The pictoral designs favored by Soten are almost the same as those of his father Shuten. They are pictures of Taoist and Buddhist monks at leisure, or pictures of warriors in combat.
This type of Soten tsuba is of very fine iron with the two Ryohitsu Ana plugged in brass. The rich brown plate is deeply pierced and delicately carved in Hikone Bori and applied with gold Nunome and Shakudo inlays with accurate details.
The plate is decorated in Iroe Takazogan while the sky behind is in Sukashi work, and the face of the figures applied with Shakudo inlays and the kimono's in gold Nunome with very accurate details. The design of a dignitary and his assistant seated under a Matsu (pine tree) is expressed with great strength and beauty in a high relief carving in a typical work of Soten school.
The fine quality of the metal, skillful engraving, give the work a feeling of grandeur and authority. This is a particularly rare example.
Maru-gata shape.
Maru Mimi (rim).
7.6cm x 7.0cm.