Anyone Care To Offer Their Opinion....

[Ed]

...on this tsuba mei? It has me stumped.

 

On the right side the first character looks like it could be the naga character 長, as seen in Choshu. The second, I have no idea, certainly not shu. 

 

After from the "Tomo" character I am leaning toward a variant of Yoshi 好 as seen on pg. 2011 of Haynes, H. 10179.0 - 1081.0.  But that is just a wild guess.

 

Thanks.

[Stephen]

Might just be my phone but the mei has a rounded feel to it as in cast.

[Ed]

Nah, it ain't cast.  It is hard to translate though  .

[Stephen]

Evidently nobody else is giving it to go!

[Brian]

I think only Morita san would get that second kanji.

[kissakai]

I think the left hand side last character is a kao

With one of mt mei I looked through every 'Haynes' mei for a kao and eventually found a match so it may be worth a search

[k morita]

Hi,

 

長藩 "Chohan" (Choshu clan).

 

Mei:

友信 (Tomonobu + kao).

[Brian]

:clap:

Would never have gotten that.
Tomonobu seems a common Choshu name though. Have one myself.

[Surfson]

It looks like a very nice tsuba, but I'm partial to Choshu work.  Thanks for the lesson Morita San!

[Ed]

  Morita Sama, Thank you very much for your translation assistance. You are "The Man" !!!  

 

Grev, thanks for your attempt, I was aware that was a kao, but should have stated that to avoid confusion.

 

It was the "Han" and "Nobu" characters which were killing me. I don't know that I would have ever figured out those two. They had me doing the old 

 

I thought the tsuba had a Choshu feel, but couldn't pin point it.

It is a nice little tsuba, unusual in that it depicts a crab with the orchid.  Have seen many with either, but this is the first one I have seen with this pairing. Only downside is it has a little of the patination rubbed off on a few high spots. Nothing major, but still.

 

Here is a photo if anyone is interested:

 

 

 

 

[Bazza]

And here is my CHOSHU NAKAI iris leaf tsuba for comparison.

 

BaZZa.

 

 

 

There should be a gold KAO but it has worn off, or been removed.  A remnant can be seen.

[Ed]

Baz,

Nice and very similar, even signed "chohan" as mine is.  I think yours , like mine depicts ran or orchid opposed to iris.

[Curran]

Grass Orchid.

 

Nice. My wife had one of these. I've seen the design at least a dozen times, but never one with a design element at the bottom like that crab.

That is unique.