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Well, it's been over 2 years since all the experts expressed their opinions about this presentation Minatogawa Shrine sword I had found and purchased out in Penn. I was willing to put up 5G's but NO takers as to it's authenticity ! And repeating - I had never intended to offer it for sale nor try to deceive anyone as I knew how I discovered the sword and all the circumstances involving the purchase, etc. NEVER did I think this sword would be put down by the "experts" as questionable. I did sell the sword with guarantee that it would paper. Here is the NBTHK Shinsa result. I sincerely hope those same judgmental folks don't think this Shinsa form is fake !!! The moral of the story if there is one ? DON'T JUDGE A SWORD BY IT'S HABAKI ? and I still stick by the ol vet who said " until you've seen it all ya don't know it all " . None of us have seen it all and none of us will ever know it all !!! We're all students but to a more or less degree. just my opinion ! I believe this is a rare item of history involving the Minatogawa Shrine and is now in the care of a good friend. Too bad Herman Wallinga did not know about this sword when publishing his nice reference book. I turn 80 next month and it was a exciting "hunt" since 1973 but for all practical purposes my "sword days" are pretty much done. It's all I can do to cope with the "madness" going on thru out the world but especially within the US of A. AIN'T THE SAME COUNTRY I GREW UP KNOWING !!! Happy hunting !

Kotani Kenzo san aka Kotani Yasunori/Takenori private photos the photo on the right shows him in the home for the aged....

Gut feel is Showato. If you don't see hataraki, then it is likely an arsenal sword.

Dear Steve. As usual we are working from limited photographs but I'm puzzled as to what makes you think this is Koto. Hamon is pretty typical for Showa and it as suguha boshi, nakago is original and unaltered and is also what you would expect from Showa. Where are you getting that Koto vibe from? Interested to know. All the best.

Hello, Its a tough one, probably the end of a katana or wak, judging by the nakago You dont see Shinogi zukuri shaped tanto often. If i was to buy one it would have to be signed and nakago well finished, that way you know its a legit tanto An example https://sword-auction.com/en/product/14059/as21710-短刀：横山伊勢守祐平/

Don't think that political influence is even within the top three issues. The biggest problem experienced today is that Japanese institutions are multi-generational. You have post-war generation where even if you had some family based "street cred" you had to constantly prove yourself. I've never seen Dr. Honma's judgment obliterated, there could be misreadings on which genealogy one uses, but its basically always solid. If you want to know what he meant, you just read his books. His understanding was actually "unconventional" at the time, he challenged a lot of old concepts, and must have been challenged himself many times over. Today a lot of experts are the third generation. Their parents were successful as polishers-merchants-members of nihonto hierarchy. Themselves they never had to prove anything, some just served coffee and mopped the floors waiting until Ueno-san transfers into another world and there is an open spot to fill. By the same token there were Honami who saw a lot of swords and did work hard, and there were many who were next to useless. The good thing is that useless were also typically lazy, so they did not do too much in the confusion department.

I do not believe the Hon'Ami "cooked up" swords, certainly there were generous attributions given for generous patrons but they didn't need to fake things to make a living. If you believe everything is cooked then there is nothing to believe in, time to move on to another hobby. Generally they do not put gimei on poor swords - there is most often an attempt made to match workmanship to the spurious attribution/false signature. Of course there are some really clumsy examples out there. Yes there were blades probably cut down to try and get a better attribution but this is not why there are so many osuriage mumei blades. Not all merchants were criminals. As stated there were annual ceremonies where swords were given as gifts, the list of appropriate makers was pre-set, the ceremony prerequisite so of course the name on the label (saya) was more important than the actual work inside. Tatemae and hone. It was an accepted reality that all participated in. They still do - if you've ever participated in a Japanese wedding and seen the number of envelopes passed around you would understand. If you've lived among the Japanese you would see the sheer honesty and pure integrity of the average Japanese, living someplace uncivilized like America it is easy to think that "everyone is out to screw me", there is no place like Japan to restore one's faith in humanity... -tch

Dale, I believe the symbol you are researching is indeed a stylized KANJI. As you already found out, it often appears in Chinese ornamentation as well. To me, this TSUBA has a Chinese - or at least a HIZEN - touch..

Don’t miss it guys, I went three times to DTI, each time the Yakatabune was the apex of DTI.

Hokke Saburo Nobufusa 8. Generation 1909-2000

oilpainting of Yanagawa Naohiro 3. Gen. descendant from Taikai Naotane

Just a tip, Steve, have a look at the yasurime (file marks on the nakago)

Hi David I am trying to get a much more interesting book out before Christmas, the complete collection of tsuba in the Walters Art Museum - about 800 pages in two volumes, in my opinion they have a better collection than the Metropolitan. I have changed my style a little and where possible I have added associated items from the mounted examples such as F/K, tsuka kozuka and kogai with a few umabari thrown in. In other spots I have added legends or woodblock prints dealing with the subject matter on the tsuba. I must say the Walters Museum has been very helpful and has supplied several "hard to get" images not found in their on-line collection. You might find the Met book a bit disapointing because of the print quality, the glossy paper option would have been very expensive costing around $200 which I thought was excessive so it is only available in 'economy colour' to keep the price within reach. You can always contact me with a personal message, I very likely can get any of the books sent much cheaper than the book dealers. Regards.

Agreeing with Dale's expression of difficulty in assigning school or period to such a tsuba, to me the OP's tsuba is certainly real and likely quite old, but for all that it has a rudimentary, agricultural 'look' to it. I don't mean this to be critical, but rather to say it doesn't appear to have the 'finesse' of a 'school' piece. So, might I suggest it was made by a local (rural??) craftsman seriously intended to be a practical tsuba. I feel it fits the Hizen/Nagasaki connection. BaZZa - but what do I know...

they are all from the same fabric. With a good paint job it would burn many.

Looks like Muromachi, what makes you lean to Ko-Bizen?

Late post, it took me a while to find the image. Nowhere near as nice as the Hamano but the same design by a less skilful maker. [The cicada could do with a diet!]

Hi Roger The business end of town [close to the river] was flooded for a few hours yesterday - I am 24 m further up in elevation, if we get flooded please send a submarine because half the state will be under water! Hate to say it but it is a bit of a news beatup for us, but more serious inundation for smaller centres like Deloraine [central North of Tassie] Sorry David for highjacking your thread I am actually struggling to find another guard like yours - which is not a bad thing, but 'unique' pieces are difficult to to assign school or period. Jean is very likely correct in it being Hizen or made somewhere around Nagasaki(?)

Nihonto Australia will be at the Brisbane Gun Show on 15 and 16 October. The show is being held at the Brisbane Show Grounds between 9 am and 4pm on the 15th and 9 am and 2 pm on the 16th. Lots of great antique swords for sale. Nihonto Australia

Nice to hear, thanks for the update! I find it is the chase that is often just as fun as collecting (if not more).

Another Iijima fake, serial #35531, at a Historia Auctionata auction. Note the punched dimples and the lack of detail in the Iijima logo. The Tokyo Inspector stamp is wrong. Hard to see in a zoom, but the kissaki-end of the bohi is rounded like a Nagoya bohi, rather than the kissaki-shaped bohi of the Tokyo Arsenal. Gotta hand it to them, they are not repeating serial numbers.

My fault, Damon, I missed to see two tsuba were signed. Actually suemon-zōgan are unusual in Echizen Kinai tsuba (much more common golden karakusa pattern in nunome-zōgan or, less commonly, scattered dot inlays). That's why I assumed the tsuba could be placed in the Heianjō-zōgan style.

Item No. 271 Tsuba in iron with gold and silver/shibuichi 7.08 cm x 6.45 cm x 0.50 cm Subject of Shoki and Oni unsigned , design after Toshinaga. A determined looking Shoki in pursuit of a realistic, powerfully muscled oni . Good detailing throughout with a micro nanako ground to half of the tsuba - not easy to do on iron. Although without signature , papers or provenance , one of my favourite pieces , acquired nearly twenty years ago off ebay , before the Chinese fakes started to appear . Difficult to assess age , but possibly about 150 years old . Has been mounted at least once.

1st photo, 伊豫松山住靖献造之 – Iyo Matsuyama ju Yasutake made this. 祈栄髙田本家 – Praying for the main branch of Takada/Takata family’s prosperity. 靖献作 – Yasutake made. 2nd photo, 應髙田元之氏需 – Responding to the order from Mr. Takada/Takata Motoyuki 昭和五十八年十二月吉日 – Showa 58th year (1983), a lucky day in 12th month 應髙田元之氏需– Responding to the order from Mr. Takada/Takata Motoyuki 昭和五十八年五月日 – Showa 58th year, 5th month

I have been really happy to see your Gassan posts Bryce, it is interesting to see research on them, as they fall way out of my personal scope. I have interest in old Gassan works but not for "modern" Gassan. I do think people will specialize in this hobby too. Personally I put my time in researching pre-1500's stuff with still having interest in few schools during 1500-1600. I do not have really time to spend Edo and later stuff at all. Of course you will learn some "basics" about famous Edo smiths over time and can check books on those. The subject Japanese swords is so large field in general I think over time you could (perhaps even should) narrow it down to items that interest you personally. For example as I browse the Japanese dealer sites & Yahoo JP weekly and seek all new items, I only open up the very few items that interest me personally, mostly pre-1450's stuff. There are thousands of swords listed online in Japan and stock is ever changing, only by ignoring the vast majority of them I will have time to look into those that interest me. You might even want to focus on extremely narrow field (for example one Bizen off-brach etc.) but the more narrow you go the less even Japanese source material there is available. I have not found info on who is currently in NBTHK shinsa panel, I am not sure if the info is open to the public? I believe those with connections in Japan will maybe know some people. However back in the old days when branch shinsa were applied, I found the list of all NBTHK shinsa team members in HQ & every branch in old Tōken Bijutsu. It was several pages of names 100+ and their position was also featured. Now this was back when branch shinsa were a thing... NBTHK gets massive submission numbers to each Hozon & Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa, I don't think they can spend much time on a single item (I remember doing a thread about submission numbers). I think when you get to Jūyō level they can spend more time per item, and of course in that level items are historically important or/and good quality items.

Same pattern on a tsuba from my collection: I did research this pattern a little bit and I was not able to fit it into the patterns from the Genji monogatari as per the table reported previously by Bruno. Regards Luca

Interesting! It is probably an Aztec TSUBA......

An "average" Shogun received anywhere between 25 and 400 blades each year as gifts, depending on how many events he attended. They dispensed some proportional amount as their own gifts. Within a few generations in each family the blades "above the station" would be given out and in return the blades appropriate to their class would be received. Many blades changed hands a dozen times without being sold once. Honami appraisals were not intended to be purchase invoices but rather a note of how valuable the gift was and thus which event it was appropriate for. Sales receipts of any "collectible" level swords are exceptionally rare. Where the act of purchase is known, its often by Honami, who then repapered (self-papered) and sold off the blade for great profit. What one does encounter at times are pawn shop receipts for blades - there were Rai Kunitoshi's offered at "regular" Edo period's pawn shops. Near always fakes or better to say highly optimistically appraised items. Then came Meiji, and then occupation authorities confiscated all Daimyo lands after WWII. Since then its basically a sale off which continues till today.

Carved bears are a common and popular souvenir from Hokkaido where they are generally considered to be "Ainu" art. Airports and train stations in southern Hokkaido are full of the. BUT, this one is wonderful. It really is better than the usual ones to be seen. I assume this one is "AINU" but it is outstanding! The "signature" is tough. I agree with Pietro that it looks like it says "GUTO", but I wonder if it might not be like a Yago which combines pictures with kana and kanji. In that case it could be a name or a shortened abbreviate like "Yama To." Peter