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  1. Item No. 120 - Copper tsuba with copper , shibuichi and gold inlays 7.93 cm x 7.18 cm x 0.46 cm Subject of falling Ginko leaves by Ford Hallam 16 years ago. On the carved copper tsuba there are inlays of three different copper alloys and two alloys of shibuichi - the gold highlights applied by fire gilding.
    8 points
  2. Simply described as "Yoshiro Tsuba....Edo Period". The attachment of the two copper inserts using rivets rather than being soldered in place interested me. I once read somewhere that it wasn't until the Dutch arrived in Japan in around 1600 and later that the Japanese learned how to solder metal to metal. Prior to that it was by riveting and or fukurin. Hence early san mei constructed tsuba were riveted. A good friend of mine (and yours) has a lovely example using this construction. Tsuba measures 71 x 67.5 x 5 mm and includes inlaid copper vines (?) and leafs. The precision of the inset of the two copper inlays/plates into the excavated iron base plate is very accurate. There is a little surface damage between the hitsu ana and the kogai (?) ana but mostly it is in fairly good shape. If any one would like to comment then I would as always be grateful.
    3 points
  3. it dosnt matter what you paid as long as its the best example you found that you can afford. always by the best you can. then press repeat, and when you have got 4 of each then your in a good spot in life hahahahaha
    3 points
  4. Finally some good news from Japan! The two blades (a Katana and a Wakizashi/Sun Nobi Tanto) that I had in for Shinsa since June have both passed for Hozon. I have to get some restoration work done on the koshirae of one of them, and also have to get a shirasaya made as it does not have one. So it will probably be a few more months before I actually have them in hand. I don't have a full report on the details of the Shinsa. I only know that they have passed at this time. I suppose that it will take another month or two before the Origami are actually produced. I have never gone through this process before, and really had no idea how long things take to happen. I will be curious to see the results for the Katana especially as it had two sets of older kicho papers. It was judged as Fujishima the first time and judged as Shitahara the second time.
    2 points
  5. It is signed ‘Yoshiharu’ (義治)
    2 points
  6. 出羽国住人大慶庄司直胤(花押) 文化十四年仲秋(1807) 同十二月廿六日於千住大々土壇拂 Robert has it right: Dewa-no-kuni jūnin Taikei Shōji Naotane (kaō) Date of Bunka 14, Autumn. (1817) The last line is a cutting test inscription. Same year, December 26th, at Senjū (in suburbs of Tokyo at that time). Performed the Tai-tai cut (although here its spelled incorrectly. It should be 太々.)
    2 points
  7. Hi Durrel, If you only have 1 of the 4-tab seppa, you are definitely missing one. The stamped "1" is predominantly believed to be put there by the fittings shop. You will often see matching numbers on all the metal parts and that number ususally matches a painted number on the nakago. The fact that you have a missing seppa, and that all the seppa that you do have aren't similarly marked, likely means that pieces have been re-fitted at some point along the way. Can we see the rest of the gunto? The black-painted tsuba is a unique class of its own, being discussed and followed on the Type 95 Black Saya thread. Officer black-painted gunto are piggy-backed on the thread. One of the Japanese speakers will have to comment on the kanji.
    2 points
  8. To NMB Members, I just finished packing this past weeks orders. Worked most days until 1:00AM. Between running to the PO for shipping quotes and receiving payments via MO, PayPal, and Wire Transfers, answering Emails, ... it has been hectic. I must thank those whom have made purchases and / or just emailed to say hello to an old enthusiast. Among those who made a MAJOR PURCHASE was a Dr. James B. McNicholas from Virginia. This gentleman was very professional in his dealings and I can recommend him wholeheartedly. I must go to Winnipeg, MB to see my eye surgeon on Tuesday, 21 September. I will return Wednesday afternoon and I promise to list a Sword and a grouping of Tanegashima Accessories PDQ. The Nobuyoshi Sword is NO LONGER available as it is on hold pending payment. Ron Watson
    2 points
  9. Come on Bob, that is just my worthless oppinion but even if a well known idiot like me can tell this is a signed text book example then why would a much smarter person not? On a blade like this there is no room for questions, uncertainity nor interpretation left. So why care for papers? As I said before I am an idiot but not so dumb as I would waste any money or getting confirmed by whoever to what is obvious.
    2 points
  10. Hi Jon, I can't see every character clearly but if the smith was true to his form it says, Noshu Seki no Ju Ni JU San Dai Fujiwara Kanefusa Kore wo Saku. Grey
    2 points
  11. Well, with one word: “congratulations!”
    2 points
  12. This was a gift from Enomoto Sadahito for purchasing one of his fathers blades. A letter opener, all signed. Top dude, he really didnt have to do that but i was chuffed that he did.
    2 points
  13. Hey Fellas- I finally finished my sword display and study space. Thought you might enjoy taking a peek into my little world. The swords displayed on the table usually live in the the bedroom/Livingroom, but I rotate them out in the display case from time to time. In total, I have acquired 18 pieces in 3 years of active collecting, 6 of them are "mystery nihonto" the rest are papered. I think that my next step should be to get a professional appraisal of the whole lot for insurance purposes. any suggestions for how to go about this? Thanks for helping me get this far! -- JT
    1 point
  14. Good looking Sadakatsu tanto sold today on Live Auctioneers. Thought I would capture a few photos for the NMB. Hammer was $7250, making the total close to $10K once premium, taxes, shipping and fees are paid. Looks like a nice piece, but no papers.
    1 point
  15. Gentlemen, Some of the " old timers " on this forum will remember me. My Name is Ron Watson. I am 74 now and since my son & grandson have no real interest nor money, I wish my modest collection of Japanese Art Works to go to those who have a serious interest in preserving and studying the ARTS of the SAMURAI. I will start off slowly with three items and we'll see how things progress. I will try and add a items a week . At that rate I should finish in about a year. My entire collection is available and I do NOT plan on hanging on to but an item or two which I have promised as a keepsake to my son & grandson. I did many articles for the NMB and I believe that most of these are Archived, ... so if you scan thru the articles and see an item I have not yet listed, an email to : 766watson@gmail.com will get a reply. All sales will be FINAL and payment by International Money Order or Wire Transfer to my bank. I must warn you however that given the WORLD"S confusion and being totally frustrated with SHIPPING RULES, ... I will only ship within the rules of CANADA to International Buyers. I will not use CANADA POST as our Post Office is no longer reliable for anything which will cut and / or possibly fire a projectile ( even if ANTIQUE ). For all other items I can use CANADA POST but will have to quote individual shipping costs for both Canadian and International BUYERS. I believe Air Canada Cargo will handle or possibly Fedex but I am not sure of Fedex. Anyway Buyer is responsible for shipping and shipping costs. The First Item : Katana Sword in newly custom made Saya with period Fittings ( Fuchi, Kashira and Menuki ) and Waterwheel Tsuba of nice iron. The Fuchi Kashira with gold and silver on a Shakado base ( unsigned ) Tsuka is new and wrapped with good quality same and silk. Katana is signed : Yamashiro ( no ) Kuni Heianjo Ju ( Nobuyoshi ) Nagasa : 71.9 cm Sword Shape : Hon Zukuri Jihada : Ko Mokume Hamon : Choji Midaire Era : Late Muromachi ( 1490 - 1510 AD ) Period : Sue Koto Boshi : Kaeri-Fukashi, with Mune-Yaki extending back over the mune for about 14cm. Sunagashi is prevelent, as is occassional line of Kinsuji The Shinogi-ji has patches of hitasura spaced evenly along its entire length. APPRAISED and papered by Kotoken Kajihara in 1984 Photographs may be seen by referring to an Article I did for the NMB by typing in the search box " A Favorite Sword Ron Watson " This article is archived by NMB and was done in 2010. For additional photographs please email me. PRICE $ 10,000.00 US FIRM
    1 point
  16. Here’s an unusual one. Can anyone help shed some wisdom as to what this is? I was thinking a police sword but I don’t recognize this one. Thank you for any insight. Tom
    1 point
  17. Thanks Steve. Tom, you should know that Taikei Naotane is one of the most famous Shinshinto smiths, and if yours is genuine, it will be very valuable if it is healthy. If you post clearer close up photos of the signature you can get advice as to whether it is clearly a false signature or has a chance to be genuine, in which case it would be worth submitting the sword to shinsa for authentication/appraisal.
    1 point
  18. Back in 2017 I bought a rabbit tsuba plaque just for fun. I discovered yesterday, through chance that it was one of a set probably made in the 1970s. I was wondering what the kanji in the corner says ? I presume the theme is one of the animals of the Asian Zodiac. Anyone know the significance of the wall hanger? The 'tsuba' is made of bisque pottery with the decoration 'painted' on. For those interested there are two, part sets listed on Etsy. [removed from their display boards] I say part sets as there should be twelve in total. https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1076239617/Japanese-pottery-samurai-sword-parts and https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1076239513/Japanese-pottery-samurai-sword-parts No sympathy please, they are just a novelty. Just for fun what do you think of this tanto guard? UFO or lost Umbrella These are not the only 'pottery' examples, a porcelain paperweight from a sale also back in 2017
    1 point
  19. Thanks Piers for your interest which is always welcome. Yes, as well as I can tell that is how it looks- the two copper circular inserts sit on a thinned out circular iron layer(thinned out from the plates original thickness). That is how it seems to me and my wife as well. Unfortunately my eyesight is a long way from what it once was. I must say that the kogai and kozuka ana seem to show an evenly 3 layered construction- copper each side of iron I am surmising but in the hitsu ana, one side of the opening looks to be in order but looking at the other wall there is a gap between one of the copper plates and the iron. If it was all iron (which it is not) then you would think a welding together of the metal had failed- a cold shut I think it is called ? We tried to get a pic of this- maybe we should try again ? Roger j
    1 point
  20. Very good result! Well done.
    1 point
  21. Gwyn one of your images shows two seppa on the one side of the tsuba - it shouldn't logically misalign the tsuka [the thickness overall is the same ] but have you tried all configurations? Thinner/thicker seppa?
    1 point
  22. Great to hear Ryo. Im glad people like them as much as I do. The strength and quality for the price really is exceptional. Thank you
    1 point
  23. To make sure there are no misunderstandings: Papers do make sense in many cases (on higher priced items) especially when wanting to sell. If somebody offered be for example a signed Murmasa I would insist on recent NBTHK papers - atleast when the asking prices is that of a papered one ... but in this case it is like you are maried to a top model and wanted someone else to confirm your wife is fine looking-. I would not care to find a 3rd party confirm that ...
    1 point
  24. Sorry it took me a while. Here are a few shots of both sides and the mimi, showing the welding of the two metals.
    1 point
  25. Pity. I wonder if he had more than one set of koshirae and sent the wrong one? Is the fitting waaay off? No change of climate change causing it to shrink a little? If it were me, I'd display it proudly as an example of a good quality koshirae, unrelated to the sword. Nothing wrong with collecting and displaying just a koshirae. The other option, if the saya fits, is to use the fittings and have someone make a new tsuka?
    1 point
  26. Dojo group buy. Have another in the works. Everybody is quite impressed with the quality and price.
    1 point
  27. Item No. 119 Iron Tsuba with details in gold , shibuichi , copper and silver 7.82 cm x 7.24 cm x 0.55 cm Subject of Eagle and Monkey signed Hiroyoshi ( Mito school ) The artist was part of the Tamagawa & Uchikoshi branch of Mito . He had family name of Marukawa and worked in the 1st half of the 19th cent. c.1840's. Haynes H01449.0 The swooping eagle's beak has taken a bit of a knock and needs redefining - nothing major ( perhaps as a result of drunk diving ) , otherwise a piece in nice condition . Part of an auction lot about five years ago.
    1 point
  28. 藤 = Fugi 原 = Wara 吉 = Yoshi 國 = Kuni 作 = Saku
    1 point
  29. I also think that the items at top have a complicated history, with old genuine mounts and pieces salted through with dubious stuff. If anyone wanted to move on a damaged or very poor condition (unsaleable) Nihonto, sticking some genuine(ish) WW2 mounts on it would make an otherwise junk blade readily saleable, because militaria sells by a different criteria to Nihonto.
    1 point
  30. It's always a problem when stuff is jumbled up, it's why I get a bit twitchy when someone piggybacks on a thread with a different item. This style keeps turning up and I thinks it's a legit Showa empire piece, but whether it's for Manchuria or Chinese collaborators I cannot say.
    1 point
  31. 1 point
  32. The round end of nakago makes me think Bizen.
    1 point
  33. Hard to say for all but this 4 are obvious fake ones.
    1 point
  34. It's too hard to keep track of what tsuka, blade and handle belong to which from these photos. Whatever the blade on top in the most recent pictures belongs to is authentic to my eyes.
    1 point
  35. G'day Guys, So far I have identified 53 examples of Gassan Sadakatsu katana from the net. This looks like it may be about as far as I can go without more help. Here are a couple of extra things I have picked up. The average length of his blades is 68.0cm with the shortest being 64cm and longest 72.7cm. All, but a handful are signed with his kao. Of these with no kao, two are star stamped. As a general rule, those without a kao, don't seem to be quite as good as his kao'd blades. I have only found two star stamped examples, both made in 1943. I have found only six kogarasu examples. Of these, three were made with steel smelted by the Japan Iron Sand Steel Industry Company. It almost seems as if he set out to make a blade in every style he knew to see how they would turn out using this new steel. Or perhaps he was commissioned by the company to do this, although there is no mention of this in the company history. Cheers, Bryce
    1 point
  36. The Car is the "Magnolia Special". I built her from scratch, and she now lives on the second floor of building that I also built from scratch. Check it out, thanks for asking! Brian - Apologies for getting off topic.-- JT
    1 point
  37. Here's another three beautiful designs that are available from Tomoko.
    1 point
  38. Thanks again Kyle, I will do just that and this translation will go into the box. I will take a couple photos of the rest of the tsuba later today or tomorrow and post them. Cheers, Bob
    1 point
  39. You are very welcome, Bob. Just to bring together the parts of the translation (adding Steve’s contribution) and presenting it line-by-line as on the hakogaki (just in case you want to print it out and include in the box): Asai Ryōun, master of fish prints (浅井良云魚拓名人也) Student of Ryōkan, resident of Yotsuya in Edo (良寛門人江戸四谷住) A person of the year of Kyōwa [1801] (享和年問人) Please do post the other side of the tsuba. I have seen a couple of tsuba which have been made with two separate plates, both of which were Gotō Ichijō (one of was signed, the other in the Ichijō hot-stamp style), and were made of shakudo and copper, and shakudo and shibuichi respectively. I can post pictures, if you are interested. However, I’ve never seen a soft metal and iron together.
    1 point
  40. Item no. 109 - Iron Tsuba 6.96 cm x 6.64 cm x 0.58 cm Subject of single dragon rising through water and clouds with Udenuki-ana. Remains of a signature - age and school unknown. Acquired as part of a collection Item No. 110 - Iron Tsuba 8.49 cm x 8.29 cm x 0.48 cm on plain , 0.83 cm over pattern Subject of a pair ( male & female ) dragons by Masatsune? Bushu Ito school , late 18th cent. Large tsuba that appears to have been carved from a single piece of iron . Great patina and general condition.
    1 point
  41. Item No. 108 - Iron Tsuba with gold 76.9 cm x 7.12 cm x 0.56 cm Subject of peony and shi-shi in sunken relief cave or caverns. Signed Yoshihiro- age unknown. Could this Yoshihiro be from the Myochin lineage ? If so it would be of considerable age but somehow it feels younger in the hand. High grade workmanship all round with painstaking details on the rock carving and a highly animated shi-shi almost leaping free from the plate. The peony, eye and bud appear to have been carved from solid gold . The plate itself showing pleasing grain structure , not untypical of Myochin , hence the question above regarding artist school. As usual , any comments , help or corrections gratefully received.
    1 point
  42. Dear Bob, when we see a wasp on tosogu it is often wordplay (which the ancient Japanese loved). One of the more common combinations is wasp and monkey which in Japanese are homophonous with “granted fiefdom” and “lord” respectively. So a monkey grasping a wasp means the good fortune of being made the lord of a fiefdom, but a monkey simply watching or ignoring a wasp means something like “don’t waste your opportunities”. See the following NMB thread for more info on that theme: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/30375-ishiguro-masatsune-2nd-generation/ In the case of your tsuba Item No. 104, wasp can be read as Hou (or Hachi) in Japanese and deer can be read as roku (or shika). “Hou” plus “roku” makes Houroku which sounds like the word for the “stipend or salary” that a Samurai receives when starting out as a warrior. This makes your tsuba an excellent tsuba for a gift to a new Samurai. Darcy has another beautiful example and explanation of this theme here: https://yuhindo.com/goto-joshin/
    1 point
  43. Bazza, Like most things, I can easily get them overseas. Only...without a working postal service here (we "decolonized it") my only option is couriers. So anything I import starts at about $80 shipping. Therefore I can only purchase expensive stuff that is worthwhile ...........
    1 point
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