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Per request from the Dai Token Ichi thread, here are photos of the blade I bought last November at the DTI from Tsuruginoya. It is a Fukuoka Ichimonji Chikafusa that has reached NBTHK Juyo Token. I apologize for my poor photo abilities. Capturing the intricacies of this blade is very difficult. To partially make up for that, here’s what Tanobe sensei said on the sayagaki (credit to @SteveM for the translation): Designated Important Sword (Jūyō) at the 67th Jūyō Session Bizen-no-kuni Fukuoka Ichimonji Chikafusa Shortened a bit (machi-okuri), with a two-character name purposefully inscribed with a thick chisel into the tang which has been slightly cut off. The sword has a dignified shape, with a standard width, a deep koshi-zori, and the tip of the sword ending in inokubi style. The forging pattern is koitame, with a clear midare utsuri present, and a lustrous chōji midare with “fukuro chōji” showing as double-chōji in the hamon. There are ashi and yo in abundance, giving great beauty and a rich variety. This sword displays the elements of this school at its peak in the mid-Kamakura era. There are several swordsmiths with this name appearing in the indexes, which dates this sword circa Kenchō (1249-1256). This excellent sword is both a classic example of this school, as well as an outstanding item. Length 2 shaku, 3 sun, 2 bu (70.30cm) An auspicious day in November, 2024 Recorded by Tanzan (monogram) Interestingly, the NBTHK Juyo setsumei says, in part: “According to the swordsmith indexes, Chikafusa was a Fukuoka Ichimonji swordsmith, circa Jōkyū (1219-1222).” So there is a slight difference of opinion on which Chikafusa made this blade. In any event, I am quite happy with it. It was registered March 13, 1951.

Greetings to All, Recently, I acquired a rather rusty tsuba as part of a deal for a Washida tsuba with another collector. This piece was thrown into the arrangement by the seller to meet the requested price range. Despite its condition, it showed some promise. The tsuba is signed Kyozan Mitsunaka + (Kao) ({嚮山 光中(花押)}) in kin-zogan. Based on the pictures, it appeared to feature brass hira-zogan of peonies and arabesques. Despite the rust, none of the inlays seemed to be missing - testament to the craftsmanship. The subject and execution also align well with works by Washida Mitsunaka or the Washida school. Seeing its potential, I decided to accept the deal, and both tsuba landed on my desk. Believing the piece was worth restoring, I sent it to Manuel @C0D for restoration, and I wasn't disappointed. Manuel did an outstanding job removing the rust and re-patinating the brass. If Manuel would like to elaborate on the restoration process, I would welcome it. The gamble paid off, as the final result is quite pleasing. As you can see, the tsuba has been brought back to life: I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Regards, Luca P.S. I have to thank Manuel for allowing me to use the pictures he made.

Room 1 of 3. It's getting to be a bit much.

This is room 2 of 3. Mostly storage for swords but a Saotome armor and a lot of Tetsubin and books. I'm doing an exhibition now at the North Carolina Museum of art ( the making of a warrior ) from Oct 19 2025 to Feb 2 2025. You can see images on line. A lot is missing because it's there. The curator picked what she wanted so skipped over many of the Kamakura jidai swords.

Colleagues I have updated a new version of Japanese Naval Swords WW2 Swordsmiths & Workshops Part 1. This 2024 paper is an upgrade of the 2021 version, it is reorganised with appreciably more examples but with some significant corrections. Of note is the issue of Naval arsenal stamps and some long held, but incorrect views, in particular in regard to the Toyokawa Arsenal in Aichi (this arsenal did not produce swords). If you have the 2021 version, please delete it and use this one. It was outdated and I hope any errors addressed. Part 2, is likewise being upgraded and will soon be uploaded. I found it all a rather challenging topic. cheers Mal

Another weakness of mine…..

The last thing that I would want to do is discourage an incoming new enthusiast, so please don't take this in a discouraging way, however there is no final authority who can give an answer that conveys absolute truth. If a piece is not signed, then there is always some degree of uncertainty on an attribution. In the sword world, there are attributions which change from one level of paperwork to another. With fittings and swords both, there is some degree of bucketing where an item may receive a safe attribution if the answer is not entirely clear. Collecting Japanese swords and fittings needs to come with some acceptance of the fact that there may be no absolutes and that sometimes it's enough to own a masterfully made object even if you'll never know with certainty who made it.

I recently found a "stash" of difficult to find tsuba linked to the Ashmolean Museum - through their ASHMOLEAN IMAGE LIBRARY - This added something in the order of 160 more tsuba to the 1,800 odd other tsuba that can be found in the museum searches https://www.ashmolean.org/collections-online#/search/simple-search/tsuba/%7B%7D/15/96/objectNumberSortedSorting1.keyword/asc/catalogue I was taken by a particularly designed piece based on an expanded "Three Karigane" sukashi pattern - which had five birds rather than the more common three - however the description stated the design was "Ginkgo Leaves" So I thought I would let the museum know they had the wrong description. I realise that the link now is corrected so the evidence no longer exists that the museum had the wrong description - how many other corrections have "gone unnoticed?" Jan 1, 2025 As a collector of Japanese tsuba I can say with certainty that the description of https://images.ashmo...searchQuery=EAX.5754 is not ginkgo leaves and should be "five wild geese" or "five Karigane". Perhaps this can be rectified? Regards Dale Today I got a reply : Dear Dale (if I may), I just wanted to mention that our eastern art colleagues have carried out the required update following your kind email! Best wishes Rosanna Rosanna van den Bogaerde Picture Library Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology University of Oxford Beaumont Street Oxford OX1 2PH

Happy the year of 蛇 Snake! a perfect first-piece-of-the-year to share for a great beginning 三尺刀 Sanjaku-to (swords with 3 Shaku blade length) itself is already very rarely seen in Nihonto market, which most of them are stored in museum, Jinja shrines and private collections, not to mention a fully mounted 大太刀Odachi/ 野太刀Nodachi like this particular piece this sword has a Nagasa blade length of around 三尺五寸 3 Shaku 5 Sun (~106cm) and a full length of 五尺一寸五分 5 Shaku 1 Sun 5 Bu (~156cm), solid, healthy and strong. As a size refefence, the Katana with black 天正拵Tensho Koshirae has a Nagasa of over 2 Shaku 4 Sun (~73cm), the Katana with purple 突兵拵Toppei Koshirae has a Nagasa of around 2 Shaku 3 Sun (~70cm) the Koshirae is mounted with 一作 Issaku full set copper fittings, including the 笛巻塗りFuemaki-nuri style Saya which is reinforced by over 50 copper rings! Combined with the dark 青貝Aogai lacquerwork in between the copper rings, with such extrodinary length, the overall Saya design reminds me of the image of a large slithering python. The long, large and thick Tsuka is mounted with a set of large 大目貫O-menuki in the design of 蛇Hebi snake, which the large iron Tsuba has gold inlay of 北斗七星Hokuto-Shichisei "Big Dipper". Photo records of such pieces are very rare to find, and personally, I would definitely want to see more of such samples published on internet for the sake of study and enjoyment. Hope you enjoy the photos, and hope a great year of snake is waiting!

Hi, 行秋の雨ぞなき野分かな In autumn, there is no rain and the wind is blowing.

I don't remember that I had posted this before but if I had it's been some time ago. O Suriage Nambokucho Tachi attributed to Sa Sadayoshi , student of O Sa . One of the 10 best students of Masamune. It has a kin zogan mei Sa , Sadayoshi on both side of the Nakago. There is an Edo period Horimono added to the sword. 71.2 cm Syagaki by Mr. Tanobe

Just killing time while cooking dinner. This is an Ono Daisho [NBTHK Hozon] that I had fitted recently. If you have time, please share your own Ono. Yoko Ono not welcome. Not inebriated. I'm just a bit bored before dinner.

Hi folks, I have decided to make a major reset to my book buying and selling business. Ever since I started the website I've tried to have a large selection of swords, fittings, and especially books. I'm now at an age where it doesn't make sense for me to have a ton of paper on the shelves for my wife and daughter to have to deal with if I'm gone. Consequently, I've just finished lowering prices on nearly every title on the site – the 2nd time I've done so in the last year – and I've become quite picky about which books I'm buying to replace sold stock. I currently have a great variety of specialty titles – Sendai Han Tosho Meifu for example, at what I think is a great price - but once it sells don't expect there to be another copy. The same goes for many other books on the site: available and reasonably priced, and they won't be restocked once sold. Fair warning. I just took in 3 fine tsuba and 2 of them with dragons are still here; find them at the top of my Tsuba and Kodogu page. And 2 copies of the most difficult to find book on Nobuie: Nobuie Tsuba Kanbetsu Hikkei with a translation, just came available. Thanks, Grey

You're entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is. And this isn't some warm-and-fuzzy tree hugging everyone-is-a-winner forum. It's for serious collectors and enthusiasts. People we WANT to be the caretakers of Nihonto for the future. People who WANT to learn. Not people who take the attitude "I don't care what you guys think, this is what I am going to do" Lose new members? Tough. I'm not running a popularity contest. People with the balls to take criticism and learn from it will still be here a year later. Most won't because that's not what they are here for. They want people to say "What a wonderful rusty piece of metal, you are so cool" If you don't know about the National treasures that have been found, identified and saved by collectors, or the top grade swords out of polish found at sword shows that ended up going Juyo...that's for you to go research. We have nothing to prove, and we aren't here to promote amateurs buying project blades so that they can sand them down and etch out a hamon. Go to Facebook. But not the serious Nihonto groups there either. They will tell you the same thing. Not going to change, if you don't like it...you know the deal. And don't throw the "discouraging potential new collectors" at me. Plenty of the guys here saying the same thing as I am were novices here a few years ago. If they have the interest, they will read and listen, and not argue. Those are the guys that are now the ones giving good advice. Your opinion only counts when it makes sense. Otherwise it's just noise. Am I clear enough?

Hi John, in the EDO period, the Japanese had iron casting technology, and it was mastered in very good quality. They had furnaces to heat up iron to its melting point (1.538°C), and of course they would have been able to cast small objects like TSUBA! They used the "lost mold" (not 'lost wax') technology learned from the Chinese, and it was not the same as our modern 'sand-casting', but for the molds they used a mixture of clay and sand to produce a fine surface. The problem in the discussion here about this subject is the lack of knowledge about iron casting and annealing, but also about Japanese history. Making a mold for casting is a lot of work. You have to make a 'master object' first, considering the shrinkage of the desired final object. Using this, a two-piece mold was made that had to be heated up for casting so the molten iron could run freely into the finer structures. After cooling, the mold had to be destroyed to 'free' the cast object. Cleaning and cutting-off sprues and air-ducts had to follow, together with careful filing-off casting seams. Annealing to make the objects less fragile was an additional process, necessitating fuel (charcoal) and furnaces, adding to the production costs. This single-item process was labour-intensive, not resulting in cheap mass-production! Only when industrial steel production came up in the late 19th century, chill-casting was invented which allowed mass-production and low item prices. In EDO JIDAI, there was no demand for cast iron TSUBA that could be substantiated. "Normal" people (so-called 'commons) had no use for TSUBA, and wealthy people could afford traditionally made ones. Generally in the Japanese culture, hand-made objects were (and are) highly appreciated. Mass-produced small 'art' items are still considered trinkets or giveaways today. The other side should also be looked at: Forging was a well established craft in Japan, as we all know. Forging a TSUBA blank is really easy and not time consuming, and they used simple iron for it which had good toughness as opposed to cast iron. We know that not all TSUBA were made by a single workshop, but some traditions/schools used ready-made blanks and decorated them in a more artistic way. Coming to your post, we have to differentiate between "smelting" and "melting". You can feed an OROSHIGANE kiln with old iron objects that were originally made from TAMAHAGANE. The result would then be a kind of bloom looking very close to a TAMAHAGANE bloon (= KERA), differing possibly only in the carbon content. There is no melting intended in this process! Of course you can also use scrap iron of any alloy type in an OROSHIGANE kiln, but the resulting bloom would not have the properties of TAMAHAGANE and could not be treated the same way. The main purpose of this special process besides the recycling is to control the carbon content. With this short abstract, I have only scratched the surface of these technologies, but I wanted to show that throwing assumptions and guesses around is never a basis for true research. Often, the reality is not what we want it to be.

Something to share to end of this year Rai Kuniyuki is generally considered the founder of the Rai school. He worked at about the same time as Ayanokoji Sadatoshi and due to the similarity of some of their blades it is assumed that these swordsmiths collaborated No dated blade is known and the time of Rai Kuniyuki's work is estimated based on the signed and dated blades of Rai Kuniyoshi, who is believed to be his son The blade is a mumei, slender in shape with a nagasa of 68cm and represents the style of this smith's early work The Jigane is a tight and uniform ko-itame along the entire length of the blade with exquisitely bright ji-nie and delicate chikei throughout. The steel has a bluish color, typical of first-class Yamashiro blades The hardening is mostly deep nioi with fine ko-nie in kakubaru style with karimata pattern, which is well know for this swordsmith The blade has several kirikomi on the mune and muneyaki in the monouchi area The overall style of the blade is very similar to "Sakakibara Kuniyuki" which is a Juyo Bijutsuhin Enjoy

https://www.brooklyn...su-in-america-part-1

Room 3 I can't get an image small enough to attach but it's a table of Tsuba along with the images attached.

As a newcomer to sword collecting who was excited to purchase my first katana, I was shocked to discover that a katana being sold as authentic is actually a fake with altered inscriptions and papers. The katana in question is currently listed on Catawiki, and the store selling it is Kyodai Originals: https://kyodaiorigin...k-tokubetsu-hozon-2/. However, the katana and its NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon certificate have been tampered with. Here’s the evidence: 1. The gold inscription on the tang (nakago), which claims a “4-body test cut” (四ッ胴切落), has been added fraudulently. This modification does not appear on the original tang in earlier listings. 2. The original NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers for this katana can be found on the Samurai Museum website: Samurai Museum Original Listing. When comparing the certificates and identification numbers, it’s clear they are the same: • Samurai Museum Certificate: Certificate Image • Kyodai Originals Certificate: Altered Certificate Image 3. The identification numbers on the certificates match exactly, yet the Kyodai Originals listing includes the fraudulent gold-inscribed cutting test (四ッ胴切落), which was not on the original tang or certificate. As someone new to sword collecting, this discovery was disheartening. I was excited to acquire a first katana and trusted the listings and sellers. This experience taught me the importance of verifying every detail, especially when dealing with high-value items like Japanese swords. Any idea how to proceed with this so something like this will have consequences? I already contacted Catawiki about it, but I am pretty sure you guys have more experience with this. Also, how on earth can I trust any future listing of any other katana?

Great post, Glen. A few thoughts to share here... First, check out the two tsuba below. One is a Meijin-Shodai Yamakichibei, the other (more oblong one) is a Nidai Yamakichibei. This would date these pieces to the first couple of decades or so of the 17th century, or perhaps slightly earlier, so, late-Momoyama to earliest-Edo. A question to be asked is whether these two smiths are trading off of an already-established popular form, or if they created the design themselves. Given that the Yamakichibei smiths more frequently work with ita-plate styles, I would lean toward the former. But if these weren't signed, would they be seen as Kyo-sukashi? Owari? Kanayama? Ko-Shoami? Are these gimei, with mei added later to a "Ko-Shoami" or "Kanayama" tsuba? I am quite confident that these are legit Yamakichibei works, based on metal work and on the peculiar idiosyncratic nuances in the rendering of the mei on the two guards, respectively. If they are forgeries, they are perfect forgeries. In any event, one cultural consideration that muddies the already muddy waters further is the post-Momoyama quickening of the cross-currents of influence that affected the various tsuba-making groups. To the degree that any of these groups ever was "pure," uniform, and consistent in its style, design, and construction methods, by the time we get into the 17th century, and especially once the peace was solidified throughout Japan after 1615, such purity and uniformity was rapidly "contaminated" by the streams of influence coming from various places. In particular, though, the exchanges of information and inspiration occurring between Kiyosu/Nagoya in Owari and Kyoto appear to have increased considerably in these years. I think this is a big reason that the five tsuba Glen presents above all are assigned to either the Owari groups or the Kyoto groups. And even the two Yamakichibei examples I include here are, of course, Kiyosu/Nagoya products (if the standard understanding is to be accepted ). So, even the idea that it would be possible to assign such pieces categorically to a "school" is fatally flawed out of the gate. Even it it were somehow possible to determine factually that all Kanayama tsuba had this feature or that one, and that all Ko-Shoami or Kyo-Sukashi had a certain feature or set of features originally (i.e. in early- to mid-Momoyama), by the time of the end of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period, and as the Edo Period gets underway, it is highly likely that all of these groups could and would have employed such features inspired by other groups as they wanted or needed, tsuba by tsuba. So how would it be possible any longer to meaningfully classify individual sword guards made in these years and later? Finally, a quick note on the whole concept of categories and classifying. Why do we need these? We know that these constructs were largely invented by Meiji-era merchants looking to increase the appeal and value of their wares by ascribing "identities" to them, which, as Glen observes, became fixed as factual histories to be recognized and acknowledged as such. But even this early activity to invent schools was based on an understanding, conscious or otherwise, that there is some deep need in us to be able to identify something, to be able to call it something, to label it. If we could exercise the discipline to move away from this compulsion, it could go a long way toward disrupting the status quo and the system that depends on it. Rather than focus so heavily on "identifying" and "classifying" a given piece, emphasizing our analysis and appreciation of its quality and aesthetic sensibilities may be a less treacherous path to take. This is more challenging that it might at first appear, for the entire enterprise of collecting -- anything, really -- is based heavily on categories and classifications, on taxonomies and genealogies, without which many collectors would fumble around looking for order in what they have acquired. So, much of what this thread pursues relies more than a little on psychological considerations.

I thought some of you might find this interesting. I cannot find a copy of this article online and think that this is as good a place as any to share it. So, without further ado, here is the segment in question from 'Asia' magazine, May 1939, titled 'The Rusty Swords of Japan- A Study in the Death of a Philosophy' by Alan Wilson Watts. Enjoy.

The answer is 豊後国行平 Bungo Yukihira and the answers were starting to be quite one sided. I think the text was pointing fairly easily towards Yukihira as so many got the answer right and many even knew the actual sword. This sword is indeed the Jūyō Bunkazai tachi of Futarasan Jinja, and that was one reason I chose this one as I have personally seen it at the shrine in 2023, and their book has fairly good photos. Unfortunately, the photo of a photo didn’t come out too well so text description was better. The sword also has dedication inscription on the blade as it was dedicated to the shrine in 1461. I tried to mask it by taking a sugata picture with flash on top of that. The katana-mei in tachi is usually hinting towards Aoe as many wrote down their reasoning. There are some other smiths that made use of it too. Bungo Yukihira is actually quite rare smith, I have been lucky to see 6 tachi by him in various shrines and museums in Japan. The 3rd oldest dated Japanese sword is made by Yukihira. It has a dated signature of 1205, unfortunately the sword is saiha. I was lucky to see the sword at NBTHK in 2023. It is still a remarkable historical sword. I have so far gotten 46 signed works by Yukihira for data. 31 of these signed swords feature a horimono, so it can be very often seen in the works of this smith. Unfortunately, I lack the understanding in giving out fine details in workmanship. From sugata and written description people were going for early Kamakura which was really good thing. I think Bungo Yukihira might be a rare one for kantei as his blades are so rare and highly appreciated in general. Making these is a lot of fun and I think I will try to come up with another one fairly soon. Perhaps I try to jump out of my comfort zone and not do an old sword next time. However the difficult thing is that as the sword should be typical for the smith, I don’t really know Edo period smiths that well. I’ll try to make an interesting next one too.

Hi, Well I guess I just can't keep away from you guys. 😉 As some of you know, I take a daily peek at the Yahoo! Auction in Japan because I have the benefit of a brother stationed over there. Yesterday, I picked up a very long wakizashi by the same smith who is the subject of this thread. Originally, I thought it would make a nice companion piece to my first sword, a Kanbun Shinto Kunimasa but they would make a pretty weird daisho as this waki has a nagasa of 59.7 cm! Anyhow, I was searching for information on the guy and bingo - this thread has proved a real gold mine! (Whether it's 1st Gen Ichizō or 2nd Gen Denshichirō doesn't really matter to me as it's papered, looks to be in reasonable polish and cost less than $950 including postage to my brother. I love the hamon and hi - so I'm happy.) Many thanks Dee

Just for fun, here is a micro tanto. I havn't yet seen one so detailed and wonder about its origins.

Mark, the quarries of polishing stones are widely exhausted, so only small pieces of stones are found now. For most polishing needs, you have to have a certain minimum size, so there is a threshold what you can use from the remains. In some quarries, thin stone plates are glued to a base stone slab to be able to use it. As a side remark, this happened also to other minerals/rocks. In Japan, ceramic cobalt decoration (called GOSU) was traditionally made with ground ISHIKAWA stones which were cut in quarries, but also found in rivers (as the name implies). When the quarries were exhausted and the rivers depleted of these stones, some potters stole old tombstones from the graveyards (which were traditionally made of this ISHIKAWA stone) to grind them down for GOSU making. Concerning high quality natural Japanese polishing stones, these are especially sought after in old TOGISHI workshops which usually had a good stock of them, and of course on flea-markets. These natural stones are sedimentary and have special compositions in that they have a soft bond opposed to ceramic grinding stones which have a hard bond. A lot of research has been invested to reproduce the properties of the natural stones, so artificial stones are being used on a wider scale by TOGISHI nowadays. I believe this trend will be the future. The results seem to be acceptable, so there should be no fear of a decreasing polish quality. It is kind of a science based on experience; you have to find matching stones for each blade. This is one reason why an amateur with "a set of 12 original Japanese polishing stones" will probably not achieve the expected results.

I have one even earlier than Edo period, Tensho koshirae from Muromachi period, still with the original blade inside. All lacquered black, even the original seppa have traces.

@Dan tsuba if you judge the quality of a post by the number of views you better go on TikTok... The value and quality of a post is not measured in that way here! Luca

為浅田眞吾君重代 – For Mr. Asada Shingo and successive generations

Thank you for entrusting me with this restoration, at first it looked quite serious but after removing the oxidation I found that the original patina underneath was pretty much untouched by corrosion, also the zogan was rock solid in position, a testament to the quality of the work from this tsubashi. So I just had to make a new patina on the brass and stabilize the iron patina. It was a pleasure bringing back to life this excellent work.

Just found this. Looks interesting

In place of book insert your personal vice, Nihonto, Tosogu, etc.

Dan, you are missing the point entirely. This isn't proving your point...it's proving the opposite. That many of these tsuba you claim are cast, showing dubious "casting flaws" and tagane ato not cast into the tsuba, are NOT cast. And forget that whole "annealed and reheated" nonsense. If someone casts tsuba, it's to make them cheap and fast. Additional processes just add expense and time, and make it pointless. That tsuba was obviously cast. Thank you Matt for doing that, it is a huge help, well done. I suspect tsuba like that one were either made for display, cheap mounting or deliberate deception. They didn't take too much care cleaning up the insides of the sukashi, as that would have taken more time and expense, which goes against the point of cast tsuba.

For educational purpose I went ahead and did this for everyone to see. This was one blow with a pointed punch and framing hammer. For reference this tsuba came out of Japan in a lot with genuine tsuba. I knew it was cast as you can see the sekigane are cast with the tsuba.

The 2024 UPDATE of Part 2 is now uploaded.

備前國住長舩勝光 – Bizen no kuni ju Osafune Katsumitu 　　　　　同忠光 – dou Tadamitsu 同 (dou) in this context means “ditto”, then 同忠光 is equivalent to 備前國住長舩忠光 (Bizen no kuni ju Osafune Tadamitsu) . 文龜三年二月日 – Bunki 3rd year (1503), 2nd month The Sanskrit character on the blade means Acala.

Arghhhh This one puts me in a spot. Eric is both a forum supporter and also a well known and respected member of the dealer community. Do I censor criticism of forum friends and be accused of bias or do I let it play out and risk a good relationship? You don't want this job..trust me guys. I guess I can't just play favorites, so I'll let this one stand for now and take the knock. That said, I want to mention that Eric is one of the most well known and respected dealers in the US. I like him a lot. He's blunt, direct, to the point, doesn't pull any punches. But he has a very good eye for quality, and deals in excellent items. I would buy from him any day. You'll find his best stuff sells off eBay and Facebook, to a great network who appreciate knowing they will get what they pay for, no surprises and no stuff that is messed with. I've met him a few times, and have a lot of time for him. He knows value, and I guess has a certain pricing expectation. I don't know if this is shilling or not. But I don't think anything is happening that the Japanese auctions don't do routinely, and is nowadays common on eBay. Japanese dealers pull items at the last minute or cancel auctions. That doesn't make it right. But I'd rather lose an item to a higher bid (valid or not) than get something that isn't exactly as described. Not condoning anything, whether it happens or not....but personally I would buy from him anytime. eBay is a minefield anyways, no matter who your favorite dealers are...always a good idea to build a relationship with them and deal personally off eBay and FB.

I admit I have always liked the kantei threads a lot and made few of them over the years. So I thought it would be also fun to start a year with one. Unforutunately I don't have any items in my collection that I could post as a kantei item, I will improvise from the massive amount of books I have. This is not too serious as the pictures are far from perfect and my text description is not either. This is supposed to be fun experience and possibly make you open a book or 2, some may of course get it correctly by just quick glance. Then of course after the reveal we can have some discussion in the thread. I will post the answer some time on 11.1.2025. I don't know my schedule for that day yet, so it can be any time during the day. Type: Tachi Nagasa: 77,3 cm Sori: 2,2 cm Motohaba: 2,5 cm Sakihaba: 1,5 cm Kissaki: 2,1 cm Nakago: 18,0 cm This is a shinogi-zukuri tachi with iori-mune. It is narrow style and width of moto and saki are different. Sugata picture is shown. Jigane is tight ko-itame hada. Hamon is shallow ko-midare with some ko-chōji. There is yaki-otoshi. Bōshi is thin ko-maru. Unfortunately, my pictures of hada and hamon are not showing details and I do not have the knowledge is tiny details to give more accurate description. There is horimono as seen in the picture. Horimono are commonly seen in works of this smith. Nakago is ubu and has 3 holes and there is a long signature. Usually this smith signed katana-mei.

For those of us that don't have xray eyes or were brought up living in a coal mine:

Instead of being a romantic Samurai death theme like Nozarashi - this is actually the bones of a woman... The famous beauty and Poet Sotoba Komachi (aka Ono no Komachi). The theme is about faded beauty. The sotoba or grave post is the clue that the maker is giving to identify the theme.

AKA “opening a window”. A QUALIFIED polisher will select one or more locations on a blade and PROPERLY polish just that area(s) until activity can be seen so blade can be evaluated. Now… why do I say QUALIFIED? Because they also know how to polish the window so that if the blade warrants a full polish, the window they previously polished isn’t detrimental to the future full polish.

Amusing thread… I debated mentally whether to chime in or not (with the passage of time I more and more tend to just read and tolerate things I disagree with, since life and mental health are more important…) @Dan tsuba Tsuba Iconoclast Dan: I will only say here that treasures can be found on Ebay by those who have the knowledge to do so. I have two friends who have found very high level blades by top saijo Koto smiths on that marketplace. Personally, I have not managed on Ebay but have had some modest success dabbling on Yahoo Japan (even more treacherous…) Have a read of this thread here: This is probably before your time on NMB….Anyway, the knowledge possessed by the protagonist led him to acquire a masterpiece in this auction, have a window opened by a polisher and then sent to Japan for top-level restoration. The blade went on to get Juyo etc etc. The same I think happened to another one in the same auction…. Years later another friend found on Ebay a nice tachi, etc. I see various people trying their hand at “removing rust”. I try to discourage it but people often have their own pre-formed inveterate views, which cannot be altered. It is true that there are low-value swords which will probably never be restored professionally and will probably languish in a sad state. One could strip the active rust with choji oil etc, perhaps get a window done….etc Newcomers in particular should be discouraged from such attempts, despite their being skilled in other hobbies, having a dab hand at other handicrafts etc. It is as simple as that.

My last request for assistance unfortunately turned into "a sad, boring pantomime" (to paraphrase two of the last comments) and it was entirely my own fault. I fell down a stupid rabbit hole of trading insults and petty mindedness. I wish to sincerely apologize for that and would like to begin afresh - if any members here are still willing to help me. The attached seller's pictures are of a tsuba I just won on Yahoo! Auctions which will first be sent to my brother stationed in Japan, as per my previous purchases. I was attracted to it because of its rather unusual design and large, solid dimensions; Length = 8.95cm Width = 9.0cm Thickness = 0.55cm Weight = 157.84 g. Any comments on this tsuba would be most gratefully received, whether they are critical of it or not. I will not respond to anything unrelated to the tsuba itself. This includes small talk, personal comments and even flattery. I will also ignore any icons after my responses. As Brian rightly says, "this is not a popularity contest". If I receive any abusive PMs (as has happened previously), I will disregard them and immediately block the person responsible. Thank you in advance for any constructive remarks about this tsuba's provenance or age. Dee

Sorry to reanimate an old thread, but this wonderful table caught my eye and matches in here: This display contains Tsuba of the Halberstadt collection in the Design Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark https://designmuseum...n/press-room-wonder/ Best, Florian

Curran, I've always liked that theme EDIT: Those are very nice pieces. thanks for sharing! Here's a few Ohno as per your request, plus a couple that have been called Kanayama, owari, etc as well as Ohno... gear (tokei) theme: sunrise (hi no de) theme: Bamboo (take) theme: Riceball, head bag (kubi tsunagi), etc. theme (I don't know if the board member that purchased this still has it, but if he wants to comment on whether the NB thought this was a Ohno, please do...) This one Is a head scratcher. I've seen extremely similar (in terms of both theme and workmanship) binned as Ohno, Owari, and Kanayama. Make of it what you will: And finally, this was labeled as being an Ohno by the seller, but the general consensus is that it should be binned as an owari tsuba, so... Best, rkg (Richard George)

For the most part, categorizations of unsigned pieces and dates of production are indeed rife with theology Mauro @MauroP. That's abundantly evident once you start gathering multiple papered examples to try to glean some sort of insight into possible kantei points for specific "schools". Well, I was hoping people would actually give the twelve tsuba I posted an honest attempt... with no fear of judgement. But it seems that everyone is either too busy at this point in time of the year (speaking of theology ) or just don't even have an idea where to begin trying to group together such seemingly disparate examples I'll spare you all the angst of trying to figure it out. It turns out ALL twelve of these tsuba were papered as Ko-Shoami, which is a purely fictitious attribution that really gained a foothold with Sasano's publications. It seems to me like the only kantei points the NBTHK is using for this attribution are: -must be unsigned (so there's no way to check) -pre-Edo period or Edo period (it really doesn't seem to matter, even though the "ko" in Ko-shoami is supposed to mean "pre-Edo period") -steel plate (which can be solid or have just about any type of sukashi you can think of) -and most importantly, it must be difficult to place in any of the other limited number of "schools" that have been pronounced and established over the last 100 years. ...so pretty much any steel tsuba that you can't stick into an existing category. It's kind of like the "Island of Misfit Toys" (a seasonal reference for those of you who know it...) Actually, "ko-shoami" is a very handy category to have for an organization that needs to label things for money. It's like a "get out of jail for free" card for those troublesome tsuba

Hello Phillip, An interesting (and appealing) tsuba. Would love to be able to see it in hand to get a better idea of the workmanship, but your photos are pretty good. As Mauro notes there is a Nidai Yamakichibei work with the same motif and treatment, except that this other one lacks the scrolling-vine element on the rim. I'm not so sure that I see it as "good news" in and of itself that this other tsuba has been judged authentic by the NBTHK (though in this case I am in perfect agreement that this other guard is indeed a genuine Nidai Yamakichibei work). My concern would be that your tsuba is a later (probably 19th-century) utsushi ("homage"), mostly faithfully modeled after this piece that Mauro presents. There are at least a few points to consider in weighing this question. One observation I would make is that your tsuba presents as relatively "fresh"/new looking. It doesn't come across as carrying four hundred years of time. It doesn't appear to have a deep patina, and there are few if any signs of rust. Another is that the rim is quite a departure from those usually seen on Nidai work. The classic Nidai rim presents with two prominent features: 1. profuse tekkotsu, presenting like small, black, shiny "blisters" on the surface (these tekkotsu are highly appreciated by connoisseurs); 2. the edging of the rim presents with an uneven, "raw" or "scalloping" effect, forming a highly pleasing organic liveliness to the interface between the plate and the edge of the rim. These are sort of like calling cards for the Nidai. Your tsuba, Phillip, not only lacks these classic features, but also adds one -- the scrolling vine pattern -- that I have never seen on any authentic Yamakichibei guards, Nidai or otherwise. Finally, the particular rendering and placement of the sukashi elements appears to me to be too "rigid" and perfectly vertical. Compare this to the rendering of the sukashi in the example that Mauro posted. Note the skewed posture, the sort of "lean" present in the piece he posted? This is a very Momoyama thing, reflecting a sensibility of Kabukimono that was ascendant in the first years of the 17th century, a time when the Nidai was certainly active. In your guard, this openwork, as I say, is sort of stiff, and lacks the same dynamism. Among the above concerns, I have my doubts about your tsuba being a genuine Nidai work. However, as to the second of them, it is not impossible that the Nidai could have been asked/told by an individual commissioning him to create a tsuba like the one Mauro posted, but with a different rim (no scalloping, no tekkotsu, but with the scrolling vine element). Is this highly plausible? It seems somewhat unlikely to me, but it is not out of the question, either. The fact that I have never seen another Yamakichibei guard with a rim design anything like yours immediately makes me skeptical. On the other hand, if another (19th-century) craftsman simply set out to do a straightforward utsushi (or copy), why would he depart so significantly with his rendering of the rim? In other words, perhaps the radically different rim design is a good sign: on an otherwise so faithfully-rendered utsushi, right down to a pretty convincing mei, is it likely/plausible that this craftsman would create such a dramatic departure with the rim? Well, perhaps: if he were commissioned by a patron to make a copy/utsushi of the original work (the one Mauro posted) but with the instructions to do the rim differently (according to the patron's specifications), he may indeed do so. On the more positive side, the Nidai Yamakichibei is justly famed for his amida-yasuri. Some hold that his amida-yasuri are the finest of all, including other Yamakichibei smiths, the Nobuiye smiths, Hoan Kanenobu, etc... His is a most peculiar (and brilliant) form of plate treatment, sort of a "double amida yasuri," one that has particular energy and vitality. I think if it were easy to reproduce, we'd seen more of it elsewhere, including among those earlier smiths. Your tsuba, Phillip, has pretty convincingly-rendered amida yasuri. It is far better than would be seen in standard expressions of the form of plate treatment. Usually, though, the Nidai would marry his yasuri with expressive tsuchime, yakite treatment, or both, something your example here appears to mostly lack. Hard to say, then, where this leaves us. The old "Den-Nidai Yamakichibei" comes to mind. Ultimately, if were forced to decide, based on only photos, I would conservatively say it was a very well done 19th-century utsushi, due to the reservations I note above. A more optimistic approach would judge it as an unusually well-preserved example of the Nidai's work, albeit with a rim that departs quite radically from the norm. I apologize if all of the above hasn't been helpful, Phillip. I do find your tsuba to be quite appealing, whatever it may be. Please see the link below for more images of the tsuba Mauro posted. Cheers. https://www.seiyudo....08082.htm#movepoint1

Our 8th yearbook is printed and posted to 5 continents.. Full of information and articles about recent research, all Japanese Armor related. Our members receive this yearbook for free. https://www.Japanese...ciety.com/membership

After seeing this Tsuba shared in another thread, I knew I had to have it. I consider it a holiday gift to myself Sukakashi Tsuba, Akasaka school with Myoga motif. Unusual “S” shape, that was proposed may be an S hook for a kettle. Anyway, this is a permanent addition to my collection because I like it so much. Sharing just for show-and-tell. Cheers, -Sam

in search for some Tokugawa family swords.. https://www.tokugawa...59242891b7e84159.pdf