Producer unknown to us
Sword stand (Katanakake)
Asia, Japan
Prior to 1882
Wood, lacquered
Heinrich Botho Scheube (doctor, lecturer)
Purchased by the museum from Scheube in 1909
OAs 04902
This sword stand was designed to hold three swords (katana) and has an additional, shortened rack for a dagger (tantō or aikuchi) on one side. The black lacquered surface is decorated on both sides with coats of arms of the Tsugaro clan, one of Japan's samurai families in the north of the main island of Honshu in today’s Aomori Prefecture.
Botho Scheube, the collector of the object, worked as a physician and lecturer at the Kyoto Medical School between 1877 and 1881. During this time, he amassed a collection of nearly 700 objects of Japanese art and artifacts from the everyday culture of the Ainu. The collection was housed in the Leipzig Museum of Ethnology since 1891. In 1909, it passed into the possession of the museum through funding from the city and donations from wealthy Leipzig donors. However, one can assume that exhibits from Scheube's collection were already on display in the Japan exhibition of the first Grassi Museum, which opened in 1896, today the site of Leipzig Public Library on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz.
Dietmar Grundmann