Small Knife with a Rhinoceros Horn Handle

One Blade, National Treasure since 1953

Small Knife with a Rhinoceros Horn Handle (犀角柄刀子, Saikaku-e Tosu) is a Heian-period craft object owned by Domyoji Tenmangu in Osaka Prefecture, made an Important Cultural Property on 9 June 1951 and designated a National Treasure on 31 March 1953. The quantity is one blade.

It measures 32.4 centimetres overall, with a blade of 14.7 centimetres and a handle of 17.7 centimetres.

Under two years separate the two listings. 9 June 1951 is the day of the Tsurugaoka inkstone box and the Koya cutting; 31 March 1953 the day of the Jodoji pagoda and Sofukuji Daiyuhoden.

The Handle Is Longer Than the Blade

One figure among the dimensions stands out.

The blade runs 14.7 centimetres and the handle 17.7.

The handle is three centimetres longer than the blade. What is held exceeds what cuts.

With the Nagamitsu naginata, a tang of 63.6 centimetres exceeded a blade of 43.3 centimetres. That was the tang, the part sunk into a shaft.

Here it is the handle itself. The record states that the handle is made of rhinoceros horn with silver mounts at the collar.

Rhinoceros horn came from abroad. A material carried from China forms the grip.

The Scabbard Is Lost and Only the Rivets Remain

Two absences are recorded.

The first: the scabbard is lost. Nothing survives to sheathe the blade.

The second: a silver-mounted ornament is thought to have capped the end of the handle, but only its retaining rivets remain.

The ornament at the handle's end is gone and the rivets that held it are still there. A trace of what is missing survives.

With the Mikazuki Munechika, an appended scabbard was designated with its hilt lost: a sheath without a grip.

Here the reverse, a grip without a sheath. And the rivets record only that something was once fixed there.

Six Objects Sharing One Commentary

The commentary does not belong to this piece alone.

It reads that of six surviving objects, some were carried over from Tang China and some made in Japan, and that all preserve the manner of the Tang period, of which few examples remain.

One text covering six objects is attached to each of their records. Related entries include an ivory sceptre, a mirror and a pale-blue porcelain inkstone.

Sofukuji Daiyuhoden and the temple's first gate shared one commentary between two National Treasures. At Aoi Aso Shrine, five buildings carried one text.

Here there are six: the widest sharing met so far.

Provenance sits in the same text: after the death of Sugawara no Michizane the objects are said to have passed to Kakuju-ni, abbess of the family temple Hajidera, and to have come down to Domyoji Tenmangu, which succeeded that temple.

Seeing It

The knife belongs to Domyoji Tenmangu. The address field in the Agency's database is blank, the sixth such case.

The provenance carries a change from temple to shrine: the objects came down to Domyoji Tenmangu, which succeeded Hajidera.

A temple became a shrine, and the objects passed with it. At the Fudoin main hall, a Zen Buddha hall became a Shingon golden hall: a change of school.

Here the line crosses between temple and shrine. At Onjoji, buildings of one temple were filed under temples and under shrines, but that was a matter of classification.

The knife is a shrine holding, not kept on permanent display. Exhibition plans can change, so check before travelling.