Tsuba Box Translation

[Greg F]

Hello all,

I got a tsuba with this box with an average heavy mino style tsuba a few years ago and I am hoping some body can translate both sides of the lid please. Curious to see if it is original to the tsuba too. Any help is much appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Greg

[Shugyosha]

Hi Greg,

 

Better eyes and brains than mine are required:

 

On the lid: 鐔 - tsuba

 

At the bottom of the second line - 美濃 - Mino

 

Third line: 烏銅七々子地 [木瓜]??形 - Udou nanako ji [mokko?] gata

 

From Markus Sesko's encyclopaedia:

 

Sometimes in old references shakudō is written with the characters (烏金) or (烏銅). These read actually as ukin (lit. “raven gold”) or udō (lit. “raven copper”) respectively. So shakudō can also be called ukin or udō.

 

Er - that's my lot, sorry.

 

Best,

John

[Greg F]

Please dont be sorry John. Your time and efforts are very much appreciated mate. Thank you.

 

Greg

[SteveM]

From right, top to bottom

 

秋野の図　金　(can't quite make out the 2nd one, and the 金 looks oddly out of place, so I hedge my bets on this one too.) Autumn field design, gold.

無銘　Mumei. After this, John has it, including the 木瓜形.

 

For the fourth and fifth line, if I throw this back to John, who got a lot of the difficult stuff, and I remind him that the final lines are almost always dates and names, I'm wondering if he might not want to take another crack since he got this far. 

 

 

 

昭和辛亥夏日

寒山誌

note: The date is nearly illegible. But by knowing this line is almost always a date, and that it will follow a certain format (era name, zodiac year) I can deduce what the writing says. I'm somewhat hesitant about the 辛, but coupled with the 亥, I know it can only be one of a few choices.

 

 

[TETSUGENDO]

Greg,

 

Sounds like an interesting piece, some pics would be nice.....if you'd be so kind.

 

 

Cheers,

   -S-

[Peter Bleed]

NMB is TOO wonderful.This was a good puzzle and I maybe was working in the right direction, but then - all (well, lots) was revealed. Thank you John, Steve, and all!

And I'd like to see the guard, too.

Peter

[Greg F]

Hell Steven and Peter, When I get home from work tonight I will put up the tsuba pics. Its quite big and heavy. Im interested in seeing what your opinion on it as I think it is not defined or detailed enough and it seems like something has been applied as patina to the nanako area to darken it.

Oh and thank you Steve for the translation. Long live Nmb.

 

Regards

 

Greg

[Shugyosha]

Hi Steve,

 

Looking again, I managed "Showa" and "hi" and of the name I have "Kanzan" as the first two kanji which suggests that "Sato" ought to follow, but I can't spot the kanji even though I ought to be able to get the last one as it looks familiar...

 

Gambarimasu!!!

 

Best,

John

[Greg F]

Here it is. A very common design that ive seen better examples of and much worse examples too. Is the date from showa because the seller said it was from edo period. If I remember correctly Ray had a nice blade for sale a while ago with a finer example of this tsuba design.

Thanks for the help getting this translated gentlemen.

 

Greg

[SteveM]

Era + Zodiac + season

 

Kanzan is correct, but he wouldn't write his personal or family name after this. He just says, "Noted/registered/recorded by Kanzan"

[TETSUGENDO]

Greg,

 

Unfortunately, your tsuba is not the one described, no autumn grasses, no Mino.  The design is 'Hana  Karuma', lucky flower cart.....also wisteria blooms in April/May.  The author of the Hakogaki would be well aware of these things, the reasonably conclusion is obvious. Very sorry mate.

 

 

Cheers,

    -S-

p.s.-Tsuba appears to be very late Nagoya-mono at best, possible casting?

[Peter Bleed]

OMG.

P

[Greg F]

Hi Steven, dont be sorry mate im not surprised in the slightest. I knew it was not a good piece,I like the box better than the tsuba and was curious what it said on the box. It was one of my first tsuba and back then i thought it was ok but Its definitely not one of my better tsuba. I would've been surprised if the box matched the tsuba. Unfortunately a mino tsuba that I have wont fit in the box otherwise I could swap them over.

 

Cheers

 

Greg

[TETSUGENDO]

Glad it wasn't a trauma.    If you should wish to retrofit your box for another Tsuba PM me when your ready, I'd  be happy to help if you need it!

 

Cheers,

   -S-

[Greg F]

Yeah not a big loss, more of a early leaning experience lol.

Thanks Steve thats kind of you mate.

 

Greg