Iron tsuba, Hamano school, Japan, mid-Edo period, circa 1800 Of maru gata form chiseled in light relief and inlaid with takazogan and hirazogan of shibuichi, shakudo and gold of Daruma in the form of a giant appearing behind Mount Fuji. This is probably an allusion to the legend of the Yokai Daidarabotchi. It is said that this giant dug all the land in Kai province (Yamanashi prefecture) to create Mount Fuji, and that is why the area around Mount Fuji is a big basin. In order to gather more land, he dug in Omi province (Shiga prefecture), and the area he dug became Lake Biwa. On the reverse side of the tsuba, two cranes in flight are inlaid with silver. The iron plate is pierced with stylized clouds and may be an earlier Katchushi work. The mimi is covered with a sentoku fukurin. Signed Masayoshi - 政盧. 9,25 cm Provenance: Former Grataloup collection. A kozuka with the same decoration can be found in the collection "The Collection of the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen". In the signature of Noriyuki, there is a reference to a decoration inspired by a painting of Hanabusa Itcho.