Is This A Kunihiro Tsuba?

[vfox]

Hello,

 

I found this tsuba mounted on a late war gunto, which has a mei that appears to read "Kunihiro". However, the "kuni" character is a little strange and I am not sure if I am reading it correctly.

 

The tsuba measures 7cm in length and is 4mm thick.

 

 

Any opinions will be much appreciated!

 

Regards,

Jay

[parfaitelumiere]

looks like a kunihiro, I have a similar one, mei is a bit different I think There are several generations r maybe several different makers?! but all signing with same mei.

 

[Peter Bleed]

Indeed, these are fairly common. As i recall, Bob Haynes said that this was a name used by smiths who specialized in producing raw plates.

Peter

[Robin]

I'm green as grass, so forgive me when I'm wrong, but the mei doesn't look like Kunihiro imho.

 

國

廣

作

 

By the way...I do have a question about Kunihiro.

I found several swordsmiths with this name...were the tsuba's made by these smiths...or in their workshops.

Or is Kunihiro just a very common name in Japan?

 

Thanks,

 

Robin

[peterd]

Here is mine. Unfortunately not all mei are as accurate as we would like.

[vfox]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

 

I have a feeling the left-most stroke of "Kuni" was meant to be longer but stopped short, and the smith decided to add another dot above to make up for it. Although it could be another character altogether as well.

 

Best Regards,

Jay

 

 

 

 

[Bazza]

I have no doubt the mei is KUNIHIRO.  Never mind the KUNI- character being problematic as -HIRO is also poorly rendered as far as strokes go.  I feel that Jay's tsuba is also a late war piece compared to Patrice's tsuba, which I think is an older piece as it has a far better and more balanced shape and an appearance of real age.  Possibly Momoyama???

 

BaZZa.