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It probably is gimei, but apparently Naotane did have a habit of rounding up or down his age to an auspicious number. Markus Sesko wrote an article about that here: https://markussesko....nes-odd-aging-habit/

幅廣・寸延ビテ反稍強キ形態而肌立心ノ板目ニ鍛ヘテ起伏アル角互乃目乱ヲ焼キ 沸ヅキ砂流・金筋カゝリ宛ラ村正氣質ヲ加味シタル感ノ活氣漲ル優品也年代天正頃 1) Sugata 幅廣・寸延ビテ反稍強キ形態 2) Kitae 肌立心ノ板目ニ鍛ヘテ 3) Hamon 起伏アル角互乃目乱ヲ焼キ 4) Hataraki 沸ヅキ砂流・金筋カゝリ 5) Impression 宛ラ村正氣質ヲ加味シタル感ノ活氣漲ル優品也 6) Jidai 年代天正頃 – Around Tensho (1573-1592)

Congratulations on your new acquisition! I'll start with the easy bit: 駿刕島田義助 = Sunshū Shimada Yoshisuke 刃長九寸六分有之 = Length: 9 sun 6 bu 歳癸卯松風月 = sixth month of the year of the water rabbit 探山覩並誌 [花押] = Tanzan inspected and recorded [kaō]

A really interesting variation on the motif, in soft metal, done by Sai Juji Ishikawa. Equivalent to the Mona Lisa?... this shachi is always watching you

Making some more headway on this guy

I think the previous owners decided to keep the original and add that just so it would have a tsuba. Hope you find that just right one. I have gone through many until I found the one "just right" I call it my Goldilocks. 😉

Includes John's personal study notes. $1485 Here is the link to additional photos: https://stcroixblade...n-yumoto-collection/ --Matthew Brice St. Croix Blades

And another Nanban variant:

Rather than 'Bisho Osafune ju suke', the mei is 'Bizen no kuni ju Osafune Suke[sada]'. Not signed in a typical way for that lineage.

Hello, Here are few dragon theme tsuba for sale. Please dm me for more photos and information. Best regards, Krystian

You know you have hit the big time when the Chinese have stolen your design and run off thousands of cheap copies. Ford Hallam must be so proud!!! [NOT?] http://followingthei...us-flower-tsuba.html https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/275256215627 https://www.aliexpre...005004465485210.html They have even taken Ford's kanji mei and used it! The fakes have duplicated both sides - I don't expect Ford's piece to have the same view on both sides. [only one view available on-line]

Aviation troop leader Fukuda June 4, Showa 19

Upper row “脇指 無銘” (wakizashi mumei).

Lower line may read FUJIWARA TAKADA.

Thanks to both of you for your replies. That’s great to hear and know. It will be fun to look for a matching tsuba that fits Chris, now THATS a beautiful tsuba. Basically exactly what I’m looking for. The nanako is amazing

You can change it if you find a tsuba that fits. Look for something like that

Hello, Here are few dragon theme sword fittings for sale. Please dm me for more photos and information. Best regards, Krystian

Sorry Dale, but I have to add this info about the mei on the underside of the lid: You probably couldn't tell from the seller's images I posted, but the lids on these kettles are typically made of copper, so it would be very easy to carve into.

At the very least, it would give us a date range for that specific "type" of cast tsuba... Edo, Meiji, or both, it is what it is. There's a ton of this "type" of tsuba, with a bunch of different motifs, but they all share the same easily identifiable characteristics. So, it wouldn't be difficult to make the leap and assume with a fair degree of confidence that all the ones of this "type" would have been produced by this, or similar groups of kettle makers.

Funny Brian... ,and here it is without the kettle... The one on the kettle has the identical pattern to the ura side of these cast tsuba: Here's the omote side:

Ref. Item Nos. 306 & 307 Katsuhira Tigers The tiger was finished in Late October and was presented by invitation at the 5th International Convention and Exhibition of the KTK ( Kokusai Tosogu Kai ) on 30th October 2009. A rough draft of the documentary film was also shown , both receiving a positive reaction from the delegates and visitors to the Convention. A few months later , the film was edited into its present form and released on Ford's site , with links from the NMB. The question of the accuracy of the rear view was one that we thought would be lost to us but, amazingly, nearly two years later Ford received an email from a Herr Franz Hutzler , a netsuke carver and knife maker based in Germany ( check out his website ). He had seen the Utsushi film on you tube and found a catalogue showing that the original tiger had been sold at auction by Nagel Auktionen of Stuttgart . Their sale no. was 29A , lot no. 2561 , the auction taking place on the 6 - 8th June 2005. This sale had occurred over a year before I bought the smaller piece from Darcy. Herr Hutzler also kindly sent some images ( see below ) from the sale , showing the missing view of the majority of the back of the tsuba. The main deviation between the original and the Utsushi appears to be the bamboo leaves at the bottom of the tsuba. As these were completely hidden from view on the black and white picture , this is not surprising . In fact Ford's version is more complex ,showing the tiger's paws. Otherwise the pieces are not too dissimilar , although Ford did inlay both the eyes and pupils whereas on the original they were mercury gilded. Altogether a great piece of deduction and craftsmanship by Ford. The sharp eyed among you will see that the dimensions given in the auction catalogue are somewhat larger than the size of the replica. This does not scale with the previously available black and white pictures and is almost certainly a typo. The other possibility of course is that this is an entirely different piece made to a different scale by the same artist ! That is not a path down which I wish to travel for the time being... I hope these ramblings about the background of the Tiger Utsushi and how it came about etc. have been of some interest. P.S. If anyone has a copy of the Nagel auction catalogue featured , it would be good to have a full set of the relevant images- Thanks !

Very much like your blade. There is something about the geometry of the kissaki along with the bohi that is very elegant. I hope you won’t consider this a hijack. Just attaching a pic of my 2nd Gen Darani Katsukuni who in several references is quoted as working very much in the style of the Seki Kanemoto school. Just thought it might be interesting to compare.

beautiful set of carved copper bowls with silver inlay and fukurin rims:

Next summer there is a plan being floated to display tsuba at a regional museum near here. We were asked to provide candidates for selection, so yesterday I placed about 30 entrants into two bags and set off for judgement. He will be holding a general viewing this August too. About 10 or 15 years ago I went there with my early collection of 50 or so tsuba, and he was like a Ninja flicking shuriken. "No, no, no, no, no.......................no!!!!! Piers, ...buy ONE for ￥100,000, not 10 for ￥100,000." Yesterday he was generally silent, but took much longer examining each one before rejecting them. Perhaps he had matured in the meantime? Occasionally he would say why he didn't like one, or mutter a life-saving word of ..... (was that?) praise. As James Murdoch once famously said, "Words are like bullets. Use them sparingly." Finally he had seen them all, and handed them all back. I was a little disappointed. As I was searching for something cheerful to say, attempting to fill in the silence, he suddenly said, "You need to 'te-ire' (TLC) some of those. The YamaK looks promising. (= Yes, send it for papers). The Cho-Shu tsuba and the Kyo Daigoro were good, if you still have them next year. Of course, Mr H (who recently published a tsuba book around his own collection) will probably provide the bulk of the eventual display." He seemed to be saying that even at this early stage they already had too many, and it will be hard for him to reject any tsuba offered by famous collectors. And here I was innocently thinking he wouldn't have enough. But, but, but, he hadn't rejected them all!!! 3/30 is 10% folks!

Some of the Takara Zukushi (lucky treasures): the kakuregasa (hat of invisibility), kanabukuro or kinchaku (endless treasure bag), kakure mino (cloak of invisibility) and hojyu (flaming jewel or treasure ball - grants any wish). By depicting only some of the lucky treasures the maker is referring to a legend that only incorporates these treasures - can you figure it out?

I am in Japan so I cannot check my books. I believe description of koshirae is: 鯰革 : 鶴革足蛭巻腰刻鞘大小拵 - Catfish leather : Crane leg leather with spiraling upper portion. Well something in line of that. To me it is a daishō koshirae that matches up quite well in overall. Having catfish & cranes in the theme as saya materials seem to be sourced from them. There might also be an explanation for tengu etc. in this theme in folklore. Of course I am not a koshirae person and dont know about them but for me this sale is mostly about the daishō koshirae and blades are just addons. Typing forum messages with phone is not fun.

First time posting here and still very much a beginner made maybe 5 tsuba. Also big thanks to Ford Hallam for all the instruction he puts out online. Also if some of the info is self explanatory I copied a pasted my description from instagram. It’s iron patinated black through a painstaking process of building a rust coat boiling for 5 minutes then scrubbing with a toothbrush then rinse and repeat 10 times. The flower is inspired by a flower I saw on a tsuba by the renowned Goto Ichijo who was part of the Goto school which served the imperial family for over I think 17 generations. It’s meant to be a simple understated piece of a simple flower in the wind so I decided not to date it in order to stay with the minimalistic approach. All most of the engraving was done with a combination of two kebori(V)chisels along with a .5 mm nanako punch for the center of the flower which broke midway through leaving a somewhat messy result. Other than that I’m happy.

I was doing a few different things around the house this afternoon including the cleaning my Japanese swords today before the seasonal change early next week and the coming of Summer. Here are some better photos of the Koto Kanemoto Katana that I received back from the polisher in February (previous topics are in this discussion group). I am no longer a Japanese sword dealer but can still take great photos. Here are a few resized for upload to NMB. Enjoy and feel free to discuss it politely.

I did not even consider this as a possibility. That’s a good idea too. Thank you! It will be a fun thing to hunt for. I’ll be at the SF Nihonto show in August, maybe I’ll find one there Thanks again everyone, as always y’all are a big help. Cheers, -Sam

What??? Find a Tsuba which you like, matches, or whatever and have a craftsmen fit it to your sword.

If it was a papered koshirae that was believed to be originally configured a certain way, then yes, it might be a collector’s / historical faux pas. But in this case, who knows who put it on when? Good luck with the hunt.

SOLD! Thank you for the interest, everyone.

Hello Piers,thank you for your help,the information you have provided is excellent. regards Andrew

On June 8th Jeremy (the OP) said: One question (among many) that I have is, what is this armature sticking up from the mountain side? (circled in red) It kind of looks like a tori that is missing one of its legs. However, that doesn’t make any sense being that the carving is almost definitely deliberate. Can anyone shine a light on what it is? Well, I have no insight, but I did see the following on a mate's sword and wondered if it 'fits the bill'. BaZZa.

@Bruce Pennington Here is another one

I believe the basic structure of the boat is the typical donko-bune that we see on many tsuba and wood block prints. It is long and narrow and slightly curved. It sits low in the water. The bow of the boat is slightly squared off but can also be pointed. The design is very similar to river skiffs in both China and Korea. Below are pics of examples from all three countries. I think the structure behind the GO player on the left is a sun shade and not a sail. I think the boat is controlled via long pole by the third person in the boat who happens to be sitting at the bow at the moment (for comfort perhaps) but would move to the stern when they are ready to return to shore. He doesn’t seem to be doing anything at the moment but maybe watching the game. My reasoning is that the purpose of the boat ride seems to be one of leisure and to play a game of GO and not to reach a destination. It would be difficult to play GO and sail at the same time. Especially in such a narrow boat. My other reasoning is that the entirety of the shade structure seems to join to the boat and does not seem movable. A sail would need to be able to rotate or have some sort of freedom to catch wind. There also appears to be decorative trim on ‘sail’ which is more indicative of an awning. 1. tsuba with cormorant on skiff 2. Chinese skiff with cormorants 3. Chinese painting 4. Korean painting 5. Chinese skiff 6. modern sun shade apparatus 7. Japanese skiff 8. Japanese skiff 9. Japanese woodblock print

Hello gentlemen Today got this one from the auction ( pictures from the seller description) I would be delighted, if someone could help me with more understanding of the following 1. To me it looks like early Shoami work, would it be correct to call it Ko Shoami? 2. Some of the elements of the motif are unclear to me. So I can recognise hats ( Kasa?), Sukashi on the top in the shape of aoi leaves, I think. What are those sacks? And gohst like figure on the side? Tsuba is large: 9.5 cm. Thank you all in advance Regards Vitaly

Finally! An example of the cast tsuba that the kettle casters made!

First I hear your point. Second cutting it from sheet metal has no disrespect for the tradition I recommend you watch Ford Hallam Hosa Kusa series to see this in action. He makes a Tsuba from a copper sheet blank and recommends that anyone does. I think it is better to get people more access to making tsuba and the other techniques involve than placing a significant barrier of casting in the process. Saying my Tsuba is made from “sheet metal” is completely misleading and just an attempt to discount my work to others when making it from “sheet metal” is accepted by the greatest authority in the making of tsuba. Even after I cut the blank out by hand with a jewelers saw for hours(not with a bandsaw or bench guillotine or a CNC like is “traditional”), I cold forge the blanks to get a slightly domed shape as should be done. Then I polish out hammer marks etc. Also I have made Tsuba from forged wrought iron but it’s expensive and not everyone can afford to do that themselves or afford the whole casting of alloys process. Maybe I should drop the craft altogether instead? I’m not made of money. I’m not a nihonto owner, I’m a student. Second I used to reach out to people and that was wrong. I do not do that anymore and I don’t take any commissions. I don’t have these for sale on Reddit and simply post progress now. I have almost every step documented and it’s not some sort of scam. I’m not sure who samurai monkey is, but I’m not trying to take advantage of people. Three saying that I am killing the art is quite disrespectful in my opinion because other than the blank being made from sheet metal which is completely acceptable as explained earlier. Everything I do is as Ford explains on his channel. I don’t use electric gravers, I make my own chisels, I do everything by hand. I appreciate your concerns but i also have to disagree where yiu say at I’m killing the craft. I am just a young student who is trying to learn something new. I regret my previous marketing of my work but have not done that for months and only post for people interested.

This is very true - As expensive as some fittings can be, we collectors are still paying far less than what many pieces would cost if they were being made today. What has driven the prices down is the almost limitless number of pieces still finding their way to the market. Simple supply and demand, with millions of fittings still doing the rounds or coming out of attics or great grandfathers collections, it looks like a long time before even original pieces will run out.

Something for your collection Bruce.

I am proud to be a custodian of one of Stephen's pieces, [you can't say owner - we don't last as long as these little pieces of metal!] He added the ten-zogan inlay after he took the images for his book (above image 3 & 5). I agree with Colin, some dot inlay would make your guard 'pop' Teddy. There are a few good technique shows on YouTube. Keep up the good work

The ghost like figure depicts a traditional rain cloak. Together with the hats and the bottle made from a gourd it has something to do with wandering around, maybe wandering monks.

Sold

This is just personal opinion and like I said I am not very well versed in koshirae. However this touches a bit what Dave van Gompel was explaining about some lacquer techniques not being cost/time-effective in modern world. I do think the matching pair of saya at least has some age. And saya are generally often the identifying part in item description NBTHK uses. And as they are probably done with fish skin & bird leg skin I am not sure if it is even done anymore by modern craftsmen. It is of course possible to build a matching koshirae around matching saya but it will take a lot of time & work. Perhaps I am "gullible" but I see this as an older set. However one important part is seeing when 泰山元行 worked. As his fittings are used the package as such cant really predate this fittings maker. I cant find anything fast by google but I think this could be late Edo set.

Alrighty then, here's a work in progress, as of now it's only lineart as I am kind of hell bent on finishing each steps in one sitting when drawing, so I need to find time to do the coloring and shading but I have not been able to this week due to working overtime at my job. I have been raised with Dragon Ball so my style is quite Manga but I go with realistic shadings, and shading is a part where I really shine, so the final look will be quite different. I like to draw female warriors so I went with an Onna Bugeisha here. The armor itself would likely be a frankenstein set of armor so to say as it's not inspired by a single set but rather by different individual pieces, I don't think it would be too shocking to see a Saika Momonari Kabuto matched with a Go-mai Dou but I can't say that I've seen one before so I took liberties. I think there are things I could have done better like the haidate, or even the dou overall shape but we learn through failing. The most tedious part to draw is usually Odoshi-ge, so I'd like to get better at it too. I will erase the Kusari when I'll start the shading and draw them properly without using lines. As for the colors, I will go for red urushi, I'm unsure at what shading technique I'll need to use to get the feel of it, the last time I did it was too metallic/shiny but I also knew less. Unsure about the Odoshi colors. I might draw waki-date too, but again, unsure yet. Momonari Go-Mai Do are my favorite sets overall. There's a lot of things I could have done better but I improve every time.

I got mine last weekend. If you compare that to other options, it looks the best. Iam very satisfied 😌

Back in stock ,and new variants available - Acrylic 10 cm wide 35,00€ - Acrylic XL 12 cm wide 42,00€ clear or matte (epic with indirect light!) - Cherry wood 45,00 € - Natural Design 50,00 € - Padouk 55,00 € more pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/heartofsteeljapan/albums