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I would have thought my implication was obvious. Here we have two tsuba purporting to from the hands of the father of the machi-bori and his son. A pretty big deal. Yet they have no papers and have evidently been completely repatinated, or the patina is relatively fresh, hence the very clear nashiji. This ought to give cause for hesitation. This is a beautiful illustration of very clear nashiji. The appearance of a fine silver network surrounding the copper matrix. And while, yes, I do on occasion have to resort to a complete repolish and repatination it's really important to try and achieve a suitably aged and mellow appearance in the final result so that while the work is 'restored' it never the less retains a sense of its age. As for trying to understand the qualities of kata-kiri perhaps that's only truly possible if one practices it oneself. This is a little utsushi I did about 30 years ago, it's the same size as the original version, ie; much smaller than this image. The composition may be familiar to some, a bit ambitious for a first attempt perhaps. 😜 But in any case, I was asked for my opinion. I took the time to offer some very carefully considered observations. Do with it what you will. I honestly have no interest in what anyone choses to believe in these matters. After all, as the saying goes; "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". 😎

Thank you for your valuable input Ford. Myself and many others appreciate it and the time you take to give it.

Hi Ford @Ford Hallam Methinks the famous Unno Shomin Juyo Kanzan and Jittoku tsuba with tiger on the reverse was your inspiration? Brilliant Utsushi All the best Colin

A kanji carved on the gun stock is 龜　(turtle). In Japan, turtles are considered auspicious animals.

The British Museum has done most of the hard work Title of the print is "Genpei Eiyu Kurabe" (written down the far left side of the print). It means "Comparison of the Heroes of the Genpei War". It's a series of prints feature legendary heroes. Next to that is "Kajiwara Genta Kagesue", which is the name of the hero in this picture - the one on the left. The other bits are explained on the page below https://www.britishm...t/A_1906-1220-0-1352

I've hesitated to comment as I'm feeling a bit uneasy about these two pieces. There's a great deal to say that can be argued indefinitely but what I will say at this stage and that I feel is objectively correct is ; Given the apparent age of the works, referencing the lives of the alleged makers, the shibuichi is perfectly clean, with not even a trace of aged patina or other dirt, grime old oxidised wax etc. The 'nashiji' grain appears as clear as though it was patinated yesterday. There's a lighter halo around the seppa-dai. What this tells me is those lighter patches had suffered heavier oxidation/corrosion than the rest of the plate. The whole plate was then subsequently completely re-polished to redo the patina. Any area that had suffered excessive oxidation etc. and had not been adequately prepared will now patinate lighter because the alloy on the surface at those areas is now silver rich and copper depleted. It's always the less 'noble' metal that is sacrificed in these sort of corrosion effects. So in my opinion this is a new patina and the whole tsuba have been lightly re-surfaced/polished. It is possible that they have merely been a little heavy handidly over-cleaned but I see a few other blemishes that all point towards more towards a, less than expert, refinish rather then over-clean. I'm a little bothered by the excessive encroachment of the chiselling onto the seppa-dai areas. On the whole the designs are all fairly convincing and essentially straight out of the Yokoya design book, so to speak. You can easily find identical examples in the existing documented works. Looking closely at the actual cutting though I can't silence a niggling hesitation in my mind. Kata-kiri work is by it's very nature meant to be bold and expressive. A strained attention to super accuracy is not to be expected nor probably desired. But what we would expect is a degree of fluency and compositional integrity. It's a bit like a fine drawing by a noted artist compared to a careful traced copy of the same. Like a good drawing good kata-kiri ought to exhibit a sensitive and dynamic relationship and interplay between every single cut or mark. And in that vein each and every cut ought to be alive and expressive in terms of its shape. How does it being there add to the work? There's so much to say and discuss but it's late here so I'll leave it at that for now. It

Hi all, this is a tsuba i recently acquired, mei is Somin with Kao. No paper with it. The work is very remarkable to me. Katakiri bori technique presented impressively. I would like to share and happy to hear all of your opinions on it. Cheers 🥂!!

lol i clicked on the link now and it works! It seems the site returns to life.

The information is still accessible. https://web.archive....http://sho-shin.com/

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of it, but many years back I had a nice type 98 Shin-Gunto, made by Asano Kanezane, with the silver mon of the Sakai family on the kabuto gane. The sword also had its leather combat cover on the saya, and this had the Sakai mon neatly tooled into the leather between the ashi and the koiguchi,and coloured red. I had a couple of swords by Kanezane, and this one I think was not actually by him, but made by a member of his workshop and bore his name. I believe that was not unusual with kanezane's workshop. Great thread, and thank you for all who have contributed. It has been a fascinating read!

Thank you alot Chris, for your kind words 🙏. I enjoyed quite lot of @Ford Hallam researching documents and understand why he concerned about the patina on pieces very much. It's such a pain if there's any unprofessional treatment on good pieces, it could end up with misunderstanding and insensitivity on intending creation of the maker originally. I'm very appreciate that. One strange thing i noticed on the SOMIN mei one is that there are alot of lines were finished with 2 different cuts, we can see it very clearly. And they were created very carefully and masterly, then shown up very intentionally. I wonder if this is normal or not, since this is the first time i have seen one katakiri bori practicing like that. Is that what Ford mentioned in the comment?

A Type 3 positively overflowing with Mon, this just about takes the cake for most Mon on a Gunto.

Me either, but someone liked it enough to spend 15,500 yen. Perhaps it was used as a 'real' version of this 'Teapot lid holder'? https://shihateapot....riant=41705627484311 I can't see it being an incense burner it has no ashtray.

This is the correct orientation The big letters across the top read 武運長久 (būun chōkyū), which is basically "good luck in battle". The letters that go vertical down the right side are the recipient's name 贈　関口利夫君　Sekiguchi Toshio (not sure about Toshio). Sekiguchi is the family name. The rest are names and patriotic slogans. The flag was presented to Mr. Sekiguchi by his workmates at the company for which he worked. I can't quite read the name of the company. Some steel company, it looks like.

One of my mokume kozuka ....

@PNSSHOGUN saw this mon the other day

Found this today at a garage sale. Can someone help translate?

Hello from the UK. I would greatly appreciate any information, opinions and help on this katana (8.3cm) tsuba acquired as part of a small nice quality collection. I believe it is termed Kyo-sukashi but not sure what that means or how old it is. I think the design is wild geese and fishing nets? Many thanks . All the best. Colin

There are several nice items on the site. I am liking especially this one: https://www.owazamon...-tanto-with-koshirae The Tsuneie wakizashi was actually the kantei item of Tōken Bijutsu magazine 267, and was also featured in the kantei session of magazine 426. I think in overall this is a splendid package, signed, dated, papered, sayagaki, in publication, and also with koshirae.

I think it's trying to be Myochin 明珍 , although the 'chin' seems to be missing a portion for some reason

Uh, several members specifically asked for Ford’s opinion and those who wish to learn, learned something that was not obvious, particularly to non-practitioners of the craft. If you want comments like “ cool”, perhaps the Nihonto Fittings website would be more appropriate for you.

Hello, have a chap saying this knots legit but im calling it a repro ( and colours im sure are incorrect_ orange brown and mid green, not general colours or brown red/ brown blue or standard brown) but i dont know it all so could be wrong

Love New Orleans! Been a more than few years since I was down there, but used to go regularly. Jealous, but at least I get to go to Vegas.

Chinese Repro fittings on ebay. First set I've seen with assembling marks (scratches). Brand new $100

The name of the guy on the right is missing…(?)

Hi Jon, It looks to be correct.

Good morning Old Bean "Was Genta left-handed or ambidextrous, I wonder?" He is holding in the correct manner, he's just let go of the right hand to give himself a cut advantage to the femoral artery area of his hapless chum's Sune. Perhaps try it with a stick next time you are kitted up, and you'll see how much distance you obtain by doing so.

Bill T had one like that at a recent show, Yokoyama Sukenaga, signed and dated I could only see the good half and didn't know it was cut. Imagine my disappointment when he pulled it out of the display case Wartime bring back broken by MPs Still, what was there was very nice, choji, if i remember correctly.

Masamune, Jonas, but it looks faked.

Hi Bill, I think you need to contact the koshirae lacquerer Mike Hickman-Smith. He should be able to advise you at the very least.

Was Genta left-handed or ambidextrous, I wonder?

Could be made into a mekugi-nuki!

Just a couple pics of my display at the show. Wishing everyone the best. Dan

@Bruce Pennington This Blade #160869 might be transferred to Nagoya Arsenal for completion or repurposed and sent to Nagoya Arsenal for rework. Initially, it was expected to have an Ijima band and iron tsuba. The last batch produced by Ijima spanned from serial number 159031 to 161752. Around serial number 160075, they transitioned to using steel guards. Ijima halted production in March 1945 due to B-29 bombings.

Proverb A good stonemason makes deep cuts, not cuts. I like the other more Christian. That tsuba hits not my taste. Your own taste decides what you like and what you spend your money on, not the opinion of others who say what you should like.

I dont have much knowledge but from my observations the whole piece is in my opinion not on the same level other Yokoya works i have seen are. It is just my impression from viewing the pictures online and would like to know what you other guys think about this. For example crumbled lines and the always visible appearance of the chisel marks inside the lines, sometimes they are intentional but not on this piece in my opinion. I like the Tsuba anyway dont get me wrong and i just want to learn.

Luckily i find out in my phone storage an inside lighting photo of the Soyo one to compare. Let's have a look

Wow, thank you Ford! Your comment amused me alot, like something makes my day. Very interesting and full of educational information. First of all, it's my bad trying to catch every detail of the strokes on the pieces with daylight outside, using my phone camera, so that i let the sky reflected on surface of the shibuichi, make it turn into a weird bright white color. This can be explained with the clip below, which has just captured another tsuba of mine, very similar shibuichi surface, identical color and texture with the Yokoya daisho set. We can see that with different angle, the shibuichi will turn back to its actual look. ( Sorry I'm in a business trip now, so i don't have the set with me, except this little one i keep along) https://youtu.be/ElI...?si=dp6KyHVvE7lzEIXo

Hi Paul, the sword looks all original and in nice condition. The price is rather high for an arsenal blade, though I'm not too familiar with the european market for these swords.

Riding Crop?

Digital microscope pictures of the hamon These were taken with a Dino-Lite Premier which magnifies up to 230x. The only thing i don't like is that I cannot change the brightness of the LEDs. Regards Sean S.

Ah, that’s much better. Thank you. Sadly someone has filed away both the rust and the smith Mei at the same time. There was a continuing house line of 20 Kyūbei smiths at Kunitomo until the Bakumatsu end of the Tokugawa dynasty. (The founder was just Kyūbei with no further name, at the beginning of the Edo period, but your gun looks like one of his descendants, as the name is longer. The style of your pan lid suggests mid to late Edo.)

While not in an unusual location, this Mon appears to be made from copper(?) rather than the usual silver. The good mounts are otherwise more or less unremarkable. Ebay link

Looks very fake to me.

Basically, GURI BORI technique uses the same materials and crafts: https://www.mokumegane.org/e/guribori.html

Whatever happened to "Slide night" https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204434211480 Oh yes, that's right "slide night" replaced the "Magic Lantern" https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/176003103396

I am NEVER going to wholeheartedly recommend any non-traditional method of cleaning or rust removal. But for ONLY very out of polish blades with active rust (Keep it AWAY from the nakago) Evaporust will remove rust, yes. It will leave pitting showing though, and get down to bare metal. It will remove bluing and patina that was applied, so keep away from your blued firearms. Does nothing to the metal, and is harmless to skin. I think it's application (for me mainly) is old knives with rusted blades. Again, not an endorsement. But it's wonderful on old tools and machine parts.

Friday is a good day for some eye candy - I've been editing some pics of a recent acquisition while trying to whittle away what's left of the work week and figured I'd share them here. Ko-Bizen Mizusashi, 19 x 12.5cm, Momoyama period - late 16th/early 17th C. A tour de force of both the style and vessel type, this piece radiates the beauty of imperfect forms and natural textures that was prized during the period. 👺🙏🔥

A very unique Koshirae featuring Mon placed on the Saya, similar to @Ian B3HR2UH's example. There is a Suya Shoten stamp on the Tsuba. https://page.auction.../auction/d1095902258

Black leather tsuka cover?!?!?!