Geraint

Dear Brian. A nice thing. Some more information here to compare. https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/hirado-kunishige-fuchi All the best.

Dear Karen. Just to add to what Brian has written you might enjoy browsing here, https://www.aoijapan.com/kozuka/ Originals are always one sided, the back is flat to allow it to slide into the slot on the scabbard of a Japanese sword. If yours is the same pattern on both sides then the chances are high that it is one of the later ones made by pressing thin metal and then soldering two together. If it has the flat back it may still be a pressing, I rather suspect that yours is. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Dear Mike. Have a look here: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/233862 All the best.

Dear Both. While we have no evidence about Yasuhiro's personality calling him Bitch Yasuhiro is a bit strong! Bitchu Yasuhiro. All the best.

I saw the auction but had my eye on other things. My first thought was Jakushi but I have little understanding of the Takada school with regard to tsuba. Whatever it turns out to be it's a very nice tsyba. All the best.

Aaaahhhh! Methinks you did well with that one Colin. I agree with what has already been said, not cast and not Soten, but would love to know more from Jean about the Takada suggestion. All the best.

Absolutely not! I think that we fail to comprehend the extent and speed of the revolution in Japan post Meiji restoration. I have been looking for the source and have so far failed to find it but at least one English collector of note first encountered tsuba when walking along a quay in London and a barrel slipped from the crane sling that was unloading it, crashed and burst spilling piles of tsuba. In other words tsuba were literally being sold out of Japan by the bucketful. The early European collections were formed from this vast array of tsuba, those who were discriminating enough trawled the sea of objects and selected, whether in Japan, like Mosle, or in European cities. The famous myth of Japanese prints igniting the European art world having been discovered as packing material in shipping boxes is analogous. The significance of people such as Bing with his gallery and extensive holdings gives us some idea of the fervour with which all sorts of Japanese art was being sought after. (Don't get me started on the relationship between Japanese art and Art Nouveau!) When the supply began to dry up the Japanese started to crank out cast copies to supply the demand, desperate not to lose the market and to support a struggling economy in transition. The quality of these is low and they should be fairly easy to spot compared with the rather more sophisticated copies that we are seeing now. Well Paris, your tongue in cheek remark gave me the opportunity to vent some of this, I do realise that it is not what you were after but perhaps some of it might be of interest to someone. To conclude, there are quite a few of this class of tsuba going the rounds. I am quite happy to date these as Meiji or later, certainly post Haitorei, nothing Edo about them. Now dismounting from my high horse and bidding you a good evening. All the best.

Dear Pierre. Some thoughts for you to ponder, or ignore if you feel so inclined. When Tozando sold this piece their description included the following. "The name Harushige is engraved on the nakago. Harushige is famous as a swordsmith of the Soshu school in the Muromachi period, and this tanto is from the Shinto period. All the koshirae fittings for the tanto are from that period and are very tasteful. It is also equipped with a kozuka, making it a complete package for a tanto." That is somewhat ambiguous as it draws the mind towards Soshu without claiming it. They say that it is Shinto but as we know there are no smiths that fit the bill in the Shinto period. If we follow their description then the Meikan more hypothesis becomes a factor. However I tend to agree with Kirill for the following reasons. Tanto in Shinto are rare as a starting point. This tanto exhibits no signs of the effects of polishing around the machi which are well defined and quite deep. The mei shows no signs of wear, the tagane ato are still apparent in the photographs. The crispness of the nakago, the nakago jiri and the colour do not speak of Shinto to me. Given these factors my conclusion would be that this is by the Shinshinto smith Shinryushi Harushige, the one that Bobby mentioned. My library doesn't add much except that he is in Hawley as HAR95. Whatever your conclusions enjoy this tanto and do let us know what the results are if you do send it to shinsa. All the best.

Dear Fred. From the images posted both of these look to be low quality reproductions. Further images would help. All the best.

Dear Jedediah. This is all adding up to the same outcome really. An unsigned tanto with a pretty cautious attribution, something that the seller has failed to indicate. Add to this the koshirae is of little interest, note the fuchi is simply a metal band around the tsuka and I wouldn't be surprised to find that the fittings were very recent. So the question is, 'Why are you thinking of buying this?' If you are heading for Juyo where will this sit in your collection? All the best.

Dear Adam. Purely in the interests of furthering your quest it is Takada rather than Takeda. Al the best.

Dear Brian. Hard to see from these pictures but I think you are right. Bear in mind that tsuba are often made by folding and fire welding steel so that sometimes a weld line is visible in the nakago ana or ryo hitsu, the distinguishing characteristic is that seam lines caused by casting are raised from the surface, weld lines tend to dip into the surface. All the best.

Dear Paris. Yes, this one is cast as well. If you look at the seppa dai on the lower picture you will see little squiggly raised lines, once you have picked them out you can see them all over the surface. And the classic shape for the nakago ana. All the best.

Dear All. We are pussy footing around this, aren't we? This is clearly a late cast copy, (as is the one linked on Aoi, note the shape of the nakago ana.). The Nihonto Club database is specifically for swordsmiths, not tsuba artists. The reference on Nihonto Club uses a different kanji so certainly not the same person. Not sure what the keyboard equivalent of ink is but we are wasting a lot of it here. Paris this is a good example for you to train your eye for future reference, points to ponder are the blurred mei, the marks on the seppa dai, the shape of the nakago ana, the surface of the tsuba and the detail of the 'carving'. Compare with the Aoi example and check these features out. All the best.

Dear All. If anyone here was the successful bidder on the tsuba at the Hannams sale on Wednesday 18th I have a tidbit of information about lot 71 that you may not know. All the best.

Thank you both, I too took this for granted. My wife has a way of asking such killer questions, friends of our who were police officers reckon that she missed her vocation and would have been great at interrogation! All the best.

Dear All. So a birthday road trip with my lovely wife and she starts asking me about swords. Out of nowhere the question, 'When did shirasaya start being used?' Looong silence.......until I realised I had no idea and had never read anything about this. Any ideas folks? All the best.

Dear Katie. Welcome to NMB. Sorry to say that the tsuba is a cast reproduction but the sword is signed Kunimasa. More pictures would help identify it further. All the best.

Dear John. I think that the idea is that someone has stuffed a glass jar into the iron object to turn it into a candle holder......... No? All the best.

Dear Dee. I am sorry that answers have not been forthcoming, perhaps at the least this post will stimulate others who know much more than I but here are a scant few references for you. In 'A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armour in All Countries and in All Times', by George Cameron Stone,(Universally known as Stone's glossary for obvious reasons!), one Japanese example is listed under 'muzzle', p460. In, 'Arms and Armour of the Samurai', Bottomley and Hopson. 1988, two are illustrated on p10 and attributed to the Kyoto Arashiyama Museum, referencing that catalogue they seem to be the only two in the museum. I understand that the Arashiyama collection was disposed of some years ago. One other example features in the catalogue of the Dai Token Ichi annual exhibition catalogue for 2006. illustrated on page 125. On the whole they seem to be rather rare survivors. I hope this information is of some use to you. To add, I think bamen may mislead your search as this usually refers to face armour for a horse, the equivalent of European chanfron. Laurent suggests Kuchikago, (and quotes the Bottomley and Hopson reference). All the best.

Dear Michael. As with any technology adoption is a gradual process rather than a sudden one, assigning a specific date to any such change is problematic. You may find this interesting, https://www.Japan.travel/Japan-heritage/popular/izumo's-ancient-tatara-ironmaking-heritage-shimane-iron-sword Also perhaps this summary, https://www.touken.or.jp/english/explanation/informationcorner.html We are drifting a little from your original enquiry but it is all interesting in relation to sword production. All the best.

Dear Steve. Just to add the tsuba is a cast copy,(straight lines all over the seppa dai and blurred mei). The photographs are not detailed enough to tell much about the fittings but it is not uncommon to find swords quickly militarised by the addition of a hanger and a sarute, probably originally a leather combat cover. All the best.

Dear Alves. Just to tease out some more detail, the tsuba of a sword has little to do with the blade itself in most cases so we would need pictures of the blade to tell you what we can about that. As far as the tsuba itself goes then Shoami is the school and Kanenori the name of the maker, for comparison here is a somewhat similar one, https://searchcollection.asianart.org/people/260/shoami-kanenori And another here, It seems that he was quite fond of this style. All the best.

Dear Ramin. In this case the sugat of the sword is entirely intentional and probably never had a yokote. If you look closely you wi;; see that the blade starts near the habaki in almost normal shape but then the shinogi ji slopes suddenly down toward the mune in a shape reminiscent of a naginata. Without yokote this would be called a kanumuri otoshi style blade, compare here for the basics. https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/glossary.htm An unusual sugata for a katana. All the best.

Dear Michael. This one appears to be Bizen no kuni Osafune ju Kawachi no Kami Sukesada. Compare here, https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A020623.html See what you think, and I am sure others will chime in here, but the kiku is not well cut and is on the wrong side I think. All the best.