Geraint

Dear Robert. Your pictures are too small to tell a great deal. The overall design corresponds to what Sugawa calls flat butt guns. Have you dismounted the gun to see if it is signed? All the best.

I think perhaps we are talking about a makura yari, or pillow spear, rather than a fukuro yari, which as John says , has a socket rather than the conventional nakago. Would love to see some pictures of the blade please Walter. All the best.

Dear Greg. For the length of a Japanese sword measure from the tip, the kissaki, to the notch, the machi, at the start of the tang, the nakago. In your research you will find that the name is well known but expect a false signature, gimei. It's a bit like finding violin with a Stradivarius label, suggests it's a great fiddle and it turns out it is as the man himself never used paper labels. Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Steve, If you go to the to of the page to the Nihonto info tab, then on the drop down menu go to Links, the next menu has a link to clubs and societies. All the best.

Dear Colin. I do like this tsuba. I have a feeling that the double nunome line around the clouds is quite distinctive and so have spent a couple of happy hours trawling through various references to see if I could find its like. Alas nothing so far. I guess I will just have to keep looking. All the best.

Dear Roger. I have to agree, it's a nice package. Lovely restrained design for the koshirae. Someone thought a lot of the blade to put it into this mount. You might do well to examine it with a copy of "Facts and Fundmentals" to hand. All the best.

Thank you Michael, Clive's description confirms the connection with Dobree so that closes the loop. I hope that handling it was a thrill, one of the joys of life is that we sometimes get to handle masterpieces, something almost impossible for collectors in so many fields. All the best.

Wow! Thank you for these Michael. It seems like this is the one in the original exhibition from the description though I can't find accession information online for it. I don't want to ask you to put your neck on the block as it were, but would you care to talk us through why you think it is genuine? If Clive's description is his usual accurate assessment then the small amount of shortening would seem to leave enough nakago to contain the original mei. Well that's the most distinctive of the six listed in the catalogue, just need to find five more. Wasn't there a tanto in the Festing collection? Perhaps that was oneof them. All the best.

Ah! I wondered if any of the pieces might have made it into the V & A collection. Clearly the ones leant by the Royal Family ought still to be around as Piers pointed out. The one referenced was listed as leant by A Dobree, another well known name in early collecting. I wonder if the V&A accession information includes that name? The entry gives no dimensions, simply stating that it is an unmounted blade with Masamune inlaid on one side of the nakago and the Honami kinzogan on the other. Sound about right? If so then we have a complete story. Would love to see the video. All the best.

Dear Jojo. It's a wakizashi, is it? If so it will be less than 24" from tip to where the tang starts. It is signed so we could assume that it was originally an inch or two longer. First thing to say is that shinogi zukuri wakizashi are not a feature of swords from the 13th century. There area a few smiths signing Nagamitsu and from what we can see so far this just might be a later one. Last thing for now, someone, clearly not you, has done unspeakable things to the nakago with a file! This is serious damage, don't do anything to this when you get it until you have taken a lot of advice and had some better opinions from learned people here when you post some better photographs. Bet you are looking forward to opening that parcel! Enjoy. All the best.

Michael, I wish I could! They did not see fit to even include that one in the photographs. Even if they had the size of the plates is about 75mm x 100mms and each on includes from seven to twelve swords. Given the quality of the reproductions in what were still fairly early days for printed photographs............. Sorry!

Delighted it was of some interest. JP the spider tsuba is in sentoku with an Umetada mei. I did a trawl and there are no less than 6 Masamune blades, one with Honami kinzogan mei, as well as quite a few Kunihiro, Muramasa, Umetada Myoju, Kunimitsu etc, etc. None of the illustrations are anywhere near good enough to even guess about the authenticity of these. It would be lovely to know where some of the items are now but a so few are illustrated it would be a long shot. Guess we will just have to keep collecting! All the best.

I confess I included the matchlocks with you in mind, Piers. And just a last one, a page from the catalogue with some of Seymour Trower's annotations of his own tsuba. As Michael points out some of the attributions are to be taken with a large pinch of salt, indeed some of the translations leave a lot to be desired. I get the impression that the subject of forgery was little considered, if it says Masamune on the tang then it's a Masamune. Indeed there is this entry in Case J, "Complete sword. Tachi. Gold clouds on black lacquered ground, silver guard (s. SHUGUIKEN Goto Kizoaki). s. Masamune. 14c." Nevertheless some of the descriptions are mouth watering and if these were indeed the cream of the crop in London at the time then there must have been some beauties. Ah well.

The layout is a little idiosyncratic, being arranged by reference to the museum cases in the display. So for example, Case M contained 418 kozuka, Case Q held 126 tsuba, Case R a further 87 and Case S 141. A range of Ukiyoe relevant to the subject covered the walls as did some 50 items including armour, helmets, pole arms, bows, quivers and so forth. It seems to have filled quite a large room very much in the museum format of the time, cases along the walls and large vitrines in the centre of the room, all stacked out with as much material as could be crammed in. It really is one of those moments when a time machine would be lovely. I can't find a reference to the location of the gallery. All the best.

And a few more.

It's a bit of a mixed bag but here are a few. A selection of the items was made for the photographs in the catalogue so someone picked what they thought were interesting. It includes armours, swords, fittings and just for the sake of completeness a contemporary Japanese Army uniform! Here are some of the plates.

Dear All. In this post Christmas lull I thought some of you might appreciate this. In 1905 The Japan Society in London organised an exhibition of Japanese arms and armour. Contributors include both Siegfried Bing and Lasenby Liberty, both key figures in the Art Nouveau movement, as well as some of the great names in early collecting; Behrens, Dobree, Huish, Garbutt and Church to name but a few. The collection is a snapshot of what was considered at the time to be the best, we might wish to see a different emphasis. There are quite a few blades with horimono and the plates are really too small to make progress with these. A lot of the koshirae are very late and flashy but tsuba fair better both in terms of the plates and the quality. Scholarship was in its infancy and some of the captions to the plates raise an eyebrow here and there. In short it is probably not on everyone's wish list. Just as well, copies are hard to come by. So when one turned up in an unexpected place and for a very reasonable sum I was very happy to get it. Even more so as of the limited number produced, 250 copies, this one is no. 24 and bears a book plate which shows that it came form the library of H Seymour Trower, another early collector and a significant contributor to the exhibition. As I have interests in fin de siècle art and design and the history of collecting this one really ticks a lot of boxes. All the best.

Dear All. The tsuba in the original post was brought up in an earlier discussion when an identical one was for sale on Ebay. One might wish to assume that a major auction house, offering specialist sales might have access to sufficient expertise to be able to spot these things, however a lot do slip through the net and of course it is in the auctioneers interest to sell items for as much as possible so the natural tendency will be to believe the object. Smaller and provincial auction houses are in my experience even worse though sometimes when you have built a client relationship with them a porter might tip you the wink at a viewing. That is not an option online. As regards stirring up a hornet's nest, the auction conditions of sale make it well nigh impossible to pin anything down, to quote from one small section of Bonham's conditions as an example, though all are very similar. "It is for you to satisfy yourself as to each and every aspect of a Lot, including its authorship, attribution, condition, provenance, history, background, authenticity, style, period, age, suitability, quality, roadworthiness (if relevant), origin, value and Estimated selling price (including the Hammer Price)" Returning an item is hedged around with difficulties as well so I think what the paragraph and our experience tells us is caveat emptor. I would love to say that I have never fallen for anything false but that wouldn't be true. I read somewhere a long time ago that you always pay for knowledge, you can pay cash, you can pay in time studying, you can pay in travel to see things in hand. I can certainty look back to things I bought and should have left alone, and the ones that really hurt, the things I should have bought like a shot and didn't. Part of why this hobby is so compelling is that you never get to the end of it, there is always more to learn. Enough of this, I must pay for my Ebay lots which I probably shouldn't have bought. All the best.

Dear Gwyn. I think your tsuba has a much more pastoral theme, the crane and minogame symbolising longevity. John, fans not withstanding I like your tsuba. As for the example that Malcolm posted, well two people with a lot of money must have liked it but I wouldn't want it in the house. Pictorially ok but..... All the best.

On one front the seller can be defended, the link to the sale leads to his other items which include two such tsuba of different designs. Both are papered and in the photo that Adam posted he has got the wrong paper though in a later photograph he has the right one. There are some good close ups which don't make me feel any happier about them. Check it out here, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Japanese-antique-Kirishitan-Christian-Edo-Katana-Tsuba-Virgin-Mary-NTKK-NBTHK/133610863100?hash=item1f1bd3f9fc:g:YpQAAOSwpxNf3egI The closeups reveal a 'halo', (sorry, couldn't resist it), of fresh rust around the nunome zogan which is a concern. All the best.

What is now clear is that this is a genuine sword, made around WWII and in nice mounts. All the best with your bidding!

There are a few good starting point. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/connoisseurs-book-Japanese-swords/author/kokan-nagayama/ and https://www.waterstones.com/book/facts-and-fundamentals-of-Japanese-swords-a-collectors-guide/nobuo-nakahara/9781568365831 If you are just starting a library then something like this one is a fun read and has some good illustrations, https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780804847346/Cutting-Edge-Japanese-Swords-British-0804847347/plp I am sorry that I have no recommendations in languages other than English, perhaps other members might help here. Trust me, this is the start of something big! Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Aliaksandr. When measuring Japanese blades the nagasa is the distance from the kissaki, tip, to the machi, notches at the ha and mune. With me so far? At a rough guess your 43cms minus 11.5cms = 31.5cms. If you think the nakago has been shortened as Bob suggests then try to work out from the position of the mekugi ana what length this would have been when originally made. This is assuming the lower mekugi ana, the one nearest the end, is original. Just for arguments sake lets say another 5cms. If all this is the case then you have a sword that was originally a hira zukuri wakizashi of about 36.5cms. Do you have references such as "Facts and Fundamentals of Japanese Swords"? If not then you need this and one or two other books. They will tell you when hira zukuri wakizashi were made and as you get your eye trained other things will help you get to the period. All the best.

Nagasa at more than 60 cms suggests katana but I have to agree about the neglect part! All the best.

Well, that seems very reasonable to me but if it is an auction I would expect it to go for more than that. Let us know how this works out. All the best.