Bungo

" The subject is apparently " The eight horses of Bokuo" and refers to an historic expedition against the tribes of Southern China by the 5th Emperor of the 5th Chow Dynasty. I'd suggest that your tsuba may have a little brother somewhere, with the other 5 horses on. " and the 5 horsies may look like this ( posture, i.e. ) ................ too bad it's done with different technique. p.s. so a daisho ( if ever exists ), one may look for a 3 -5 combination ? milt

forgive my ignorance but why Yoshioka Inaba no Suke specifically? I thought above mentioned style is more like Kaga-ish inlay as that famous example of the peacock tsuba ( Or that example is more an exception than the rule , ) ? p.s. I place my bet on ko-Goto milt

very nice, the Mantis Dude will be after you....... p.s. I'll do the NTHK thingie......... Kyo-Kinko. 78 points !! milt

re-reading Curran's message....... you mean they cut out the orginal pic in the book and REPLACE it with the auction tsuba pic ? Now's that devilish !! mi8lt

probably just " identical " design, may be a cast copy ? Tsuba are not ( usually ) one of a kind as we all know, and i have TWO identical kiri design sukashi tsuba very similar to Sasano's sukashi book. Arhhhhhh, that gives me the chance to " show off " my e-snip page again......... click and take a look see http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=19#files http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=20#files p.s. from the Yahoo page, I see there's the " identical " rust" bulge " at the kogai hitsu ana area present in both book illustration AND pic of the auction tsuba..............what's the chance of that ( they being the same? or............. cast copy ? ) milt

" Jack Richard has taught over 2000 students over the last 2000 years " nice print though.................. http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-KATSUKAWA-SHUN ... 286.c0.m14 milt

that never stopped me milt

Brian, you MUST adopt that as your avatar !! milt

" I just see gentle steering away from too much discussion about the mediocre items, and more debate and discussion about the good pieces. If you post them, they will come... (right Martin, Doc L, Rich, Henry, Steve, Richard etc? ) " .................. ummmmm, I don't see our friend Felix mentioned Also there's no way we can steer away from " mediocre " items as that's what people most likely come across. I don't subscribe to the idea of too much low end stuffs only " hurt " the eyes. Afterall , if you don't see " ugliness ", then how can you appreciate " beauty " ( outer and inner ) ? And don't forget the sense of beauty is also heavily influenced by culture etc. ( like some African people like BIG lips or some Asian minority groups like LONG necks ).......... Besides, by exposing to " mediocrity ", we " learned " " What not to wear " ( oops, I mean collect ). Really good stuffs will be a rarity, that's why they are soooooo special, yes ? milt

" The collector who boasts "I don't know anything about Tsuba; I just buy what I like" makes a statement that is not very profound "............. actually that is honesty and a simple and pertinent answer to complex behavior. Better than dismissing anything he /she doesn't like as shriimono ( spelling ? ) and/or pretend to be " expert ". Taste is like an anatomical feature, everyone has one but slightly different.......some have big nose, some have little ones. Some appreciate anything big, while others prefer them small. That's why my favorite seldom wins the Miss Universe contest, seems like most judges like them well endowed. p.s. hope most ( not all, wouldn't want that !! ) like my lame joke, cheers milt

Thanks, Nobody san and Bugsy, you guys always come through................ milt

what new baby ? have this for years........... Now can you help translate the mei ? p.s. found out I have to actually ease up on the pressing to align the holes.......everything back to where they belongs milt

the mei........................... milt

vertical pin back in, firing mechanism still work. However, the 2 horizontal pins don't go in, I think I have to force the barrel and press down harder to re-alignthe holes................. here's pics in 2 installment milt

oops. too late now, I remove the vertical pin................... good news is, the firing mechanism didn't fall apart and the barrel is safely out . Post pics soon. It is signed milt

arhhhh, " high "( realistic-wise) class( lowest class based on Tokuwawa's edict ) money making merchant's toy , I can see the Republican association. I see 2 horizontal and one vertical long pin that seem to hold in the barrel of the gun.............remove those and take a look-see ? Wouldn't affect /disemsemble the " firing mechanism " would it ? milt

" Or even better....sell or trade that evil Republican gun to me, where it will have a really good home Brian " How can you tell it's Sakai and or Republican ? By the brass decorations ? milt

" Would be interesting to know what is written inside the original box. " I have one hawk painting done by an old master ( not my fantasy ), supposedly it was given to a pilot who actually flew the mission over Pearl Harbor. The dedication was written inside the box just like yours............... been trying to have that " translated " for years. Problem is it's very hard to take good " complete " pic of all the kanji writings. If anyone interested, i can try to take pics and people can have a go at it. p.s. from the front of your scroll box, it says national anthem.............so I think what's written inside are the words of the national song. milt

" Bungo wrote: and I copied one pic from a tsuba book to show what's " worse "........... No, not worse at all. In the pic you posted, the seppadai is very well defined, much more than the first tsuba of this post. Do not confuse seppadai and nakago ana, we are talking about two different things. " .......................................... Lorenzo, I was referring to what they did to the " area " with all the chisel marks which is very distracting when looking at the pics, not referring to the overall shape of the seppa dai. Why did they do all the " chiseling " ? More like disfacing to me.............. milt

According to the shinsa paper, Martin is spot on milt

" Bajo-zutsu. Sakai, I guess. Is that a brass cap on the tip of the Karuka? Any Mei in the place under the barrel? " I bought this years ago to go with one of my armour. Seller told me it's signed ( but I never check up on it, don't want to take it apart and can't put it back together ). I need the meaning of........... Bajo ( not a derogatory term, is it ? )-zutsu and Karuka. milt

not a long one, the two white socked feet are meant to give a sense of scale.............. I am not a yati ( spelling ? )/big foot . milt

Bugsy, Is that a telephone ? Like the Japanese version of Apple's I-phone ?\ Now taking notice of a fair warning, I shall bring thread back to topic............... Have this for a while, just wanted ONE as i promised my boss, lo und behold I kept my promise. milt

a spur for the horsie milt

clean the active rust with ivory ( and I also found out recently you can use the claws of ofelia crabs, usually on sale at Jewel grocery, cheaper than King Crab ), then oil slightly with chogi oil. It'll look great. milt