Chocolate

[echoe]

I looked at several pieces at the san fran show that the seller referred to as "chocolate", with a nice medium-brown finish. I thought he used a Japanese word for the term, which is I believe, is a Umetada piece. I looked for the term for "chocolate" in the context of sword fitting but could not find a definition. 

tom

[John A Stuart]

Koumugiiro?

[echoe]

Looked up Koumugiiro.

"Coca brown"so you at least got close. Although Japanese is the most confusing language I've came into contact with. I'll post fotos when it gets here.

tom

[John A Stuart]

Haaaaaa! Funny typo. Cocoa brown. I believe 'coca' is white. John

[Guido]

The word you're looking for is probably yōkan 羊羹, which actually is jellied sweets made of red bean paste; it's one of the terms used to describe a tsuba's color.

[echoe]

Guido.

Thank you.

 

tom