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Another also from Galerie Zacke: also described as Goto https://www.zacke.at...gons/?lot=11300&sd=1 And another, not particularly good. https://www.zacke.at...agon/?lot=11553&sd=1 A close copy in mokko form here https://world.seiyud...m/product/tu-070915/

Thanks! I have proceeded in very small steps every day, planning ahead what cuts to make and how, to ensure I don’t mess up. One turn of the handle the wrong way on the mill and it’s back to zero. Drilling the pin hole required making a simple sacrificial jig which then served as a guide for drilling the real piece. Now it is indeed just a case of finishing a bit of shaping by hand, smoothing the edges and patinating. The axis pin will be a quick lathe job.

Was it insured or not ?

Looks to be Naomichi, Tetsugendo school

I stand corrected, thank you John. A good case of dogma benefitting retailers. Heck, even some well regarded dealers use and perpetuate this as a selling point if it suits them. I found this excerpt from Nihontocraft that makes perfect sense as to why Daimyo and Shrine blades are overwhelming represented in the early Torokusho paper registrations. Q: Are blades with a Torokusho date of Showa 26 (1951) ones that came from top Daimyo collections? I have heard that only the treasured items like Masamune, Ichimonji, Sanjo Munechika, Awataguchi, Rai etc... from only old important families were invited / allowed to get registered in Showa 26 - 27. You are asking about the phrase of so-called "Daimyo/Kazoku" Torokusho registration some dealers/collectors like to use. This registration was based on the Culture Property Protection Law. Any swords that had artistic value could be registered. Even gimei and blades with any kind of kizu could be registered. This was not a shinsa. The fee was 230 Yen. This was established on Nov. 15 of Showa 25 and executed on Dec. 1, Showa 25. There is the factor that people in "the know" and in charge of important collections, would have been more aware of this new law than others and quick to react. But there is no evidence of special or private access. Please remember that at this time in sword history the total destruction of Nihonto was just barely avoided. Regular class people with regular class family treasures wanted them to be protected just as much as Shrines and Daimyos. Please see the collection of Showa 26 registration cards here (below). These are all regular class items. Yes, there were many meibutsu Daimyo/Shrine blades registered in 1951 but these years were not times when blades of that level were exclusively invited or permitted.

Another Fuchi. Sometimes the design gets a little lost in the rest of the decoration. A menuki and a tsuba of the same rain dragon motif.

Thanks John for the information... i didn't know about it.

I don't really know... Your purely technical paraphrase above is the definition of “Yakiba” and could possibly lead to misunderstandings! I would describe “Hamon” as what the root word already contains: “pattern of the cutting edge” (defined by the course of the Nioiguchi).

I know, that this i s an Ishiguro Masatsune. But you can compare the quality and you can see that there is usually an "Ishiguro" in the signature.

As Florian has said, could you perhaps show the opposite side? Could also be an Obidome - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/353492973286

One here with what looks to be the same signature. https://www.ebay.com/itm/326306514750 The Kao is a little hard to see. One in the Met - very plain, no Kao that I can see. https://www.metmuseu...lection/search/30094 may well be a different person. AI says: Naomichi Naomichi was the first maker's name used by Tango no Kami Kanemichi, a swordsmith from Settsu province (modern-day Osaka). His birth name was Mishina Yoshiheibei. I wonder what happened to this area on your tiger example? Was there an inclusion in the iron? Doesn't look like "normal" corrosion as it is only in the one spot

Where can I send mine to have done by you? Great job. I expect you'll break all the edges, and patinate with some ammonia, will look fantastic.

Agree. Occam's Razor. These are fakes. There is very little to zero chance that any of these were made during the war or by Chinese for the Japanese. I know we don't like to be brutal and blunt, but facts are facts and giving false hope is really counter-productive.

It mustn’t be a menuki necessarily. Large, single ornaments like yours could have been made for tobacco pouches like these sold at Bonham’s:

It does not look like Goto school… I can only find this book, please turn to page 25, it is in Japanese though https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NDL1844105_日本装剣金工史_〔本編〕_part1.pdf

@Jussi Ekholm I am always amazed by your database. To add another data point for you, the 2007-2008 Bizen Ichimonji Tradition book from the Sano Art Museum has a Jūyō Bunkazai tachi of 74.5 cm from a private collection. In my opinion, the mei on the tachi in this book is different than on mine. This book does not state a date for its tachi, other than Chikafusa (probably several) spanned Jōkyū to Kōan, as @Lewis B points out from Sesko. Also, according to the Index of Japanese Sword Literature on jssus.org, Chikafusa is in the Zuikan Tomei Soran by Iida and the Nihonto Bizen Den Taikan by Okazaki. I am obtaining both of these books to further my research.

I see many Tsuba posts, here is a Menuki for a change. It is a single, but extra large, nearly 3 inches long. I wonder which school it is and should it comes with a pair and where to mount. Most of the edo menukis are smaller, like between 1 and 2 inches long. any comments? Thanks

Thank you Piers, I'd love to see the outside but totally understand if you don't want to post it, anyway I'm glad the wife is happy

Looks like 宗與 with the last character as a Kao.

Go to a sword show. There's nothing better than holding tosogu and examining it with a magnifying device and talking with the sellers and other buyers.

CSM101, the one you found is by another artist, the last character is different, although their pronunciation is the same.

I agree with Jesta. You collect for the art first, investment reasons are the last. This is a difficult hobby indeed. To begin, I would suggest read a number of books on museum collections or auction catalogs from known auction houses such as Christie’s or bonhams. Some books on Chinese paintings and calligraphy also very helpful. As a beginner, I would not recommend buying from eBay, unless you have confidence with your knowledge and judgment about the authenticity of the piece. You can start from buying from reputable dealers or auction houses first. to me, coins were stamped or casted in large quantities, they can not be compared with the sword fittings that are hand made and unique in every piece.

I am a newer collector, and I can tell you the approach I took before purchasing any on my own. I will say that my first pieces came to me all at once in the form of a lifelong debt repayment, so I did have something in hand to study at first. But in my opinion if buying online, having some in hand only helps a bit. If yopu were alwyas shopping live for tsuba, then some in hand would help more. First thing that was actually useful was I came on here and listened to many people simply say, study first. So I did, starting with a couple books suggested here. Reach out to Grey Doffin on his website, he usually has a huge selection. Then I made sure to have a large enough screen and high-resolution monitor and went online. I started first with the links and dealer section located here and would actually look at them all. Next step was to go to the auctions online and start looking at activity there, especially items people were actually bidding on at the time. But I would also take time to look at everything online, because in the beginning it is just as important to learn what the reproductions and junk/fakes look like too. For me, once I had been doing this regularly for a number of months (mind you I did not buy my own tsuba until close to two years of looking/studying) I realized I had definitely learned a lot. Once you see enough nice authentic tsuba many fakes will jump right out. The really bad one's with minimal studying are pretty easy to pick out once you know what to look for such as casting lines, injection molding sites, a seam in the middle of the tsuba etc. Then the reproductions start to get better. With softer metal tsuba, study the colors of the various metals used on legitimate antiques first. Then go look at some Ebay reproductions (or auction site of your choice, Jauce may be even better than Ebay) and look at theirs. Continue this practice and I think you will be happy with the results. I am guessing from your original post you do plan on using auction sites, so here are a couple tips just for auction sites once you have some knowledge and can at least differentiate many of the fakes. If you find a tsuba for sale from a seller you are not sure about as there are one's very tough to tell, go look at what else this seller has to offer. If you go to their page and realize it looks like all of their other pieces are modern repro's , get the piece you were looking from them out of your thoughts. The probability of them having one real piece while the rest is garbage is very low in my opinion. This can be tricky if the seller only has one tsuba, but if they had other items take a look at those and decide what type of seller this person appears to be. Next piece of advice is this, just because multiple people are bidding on an item, it does not mean it is good. The site Liveauctioneers.com have many auction houses for example, but many have no idea what they even have and many list reproductions at ridiculous prices. I don't know how many times I wish there was a way to insert comments in the middle of bidding when I see people overpaying and battling it out for some hunk of crap. But even with all this, mistakes can still be made. Sukashi iron tsuba fakes are among some of the harder ones to decipher in my opinion. I feel the only "downfall" which is really a bad thing when you do a bunch of studying is that I have become much pickier about the quality of what I will purchase compared to what I thought was good quality when I first started. Do not be frightened by the hobby, if you can take some time to study, I think you will enjoy it. I do believe my studying at first definitely saved me from what I would now consider mistakes, including spending money on legitimate older pieces in poor condition or not particularly desirable pieces to study except for the fact they are actually old. Good luck and I hope this helps and gives you some encouragement. Jason

There is ZERO chance of that Bruce .You are being far too kind Richard Fuller , I think , wrote about fakes being made in india . Perhaps this is one of those as the brass inlay is something that might be found on an Indian sword . It is however NOT Japanese . It is rubbish . These things should be called out for what they are and we should not be giving people false hope

https://www.ebay.com...6874827742&recoPos=3 Look a honest ebay seller