rkg

you may want to "containerize" the web sites/links you have listed in the document as well - the web.archive.org addresses may well stay around indefinitely, but none of the commercial sites are under any obligation to leave their data up... Best, rkg (Richard George)

I just got a super-bony one... I'm actually not sure where it should be "binned" - I'd probably go with oh-no, but what do I know.. you actually really need 360 image sets, so here they are: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/temp_goose_tsuba_360/goose_sado_front/goose_sado_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/temp_goose_tsuba_360/goose_sado_back/goose_sado_back.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/temp_goose_tsuba_360/goose_sado_edge/goose_sado_edge.html Enjoy, rkg (Richard George)

Steve, Thanks for the hint! I downloaded Markus's seal script book, and... its still confusing - for example, Markus's book has "hon" as being something completely different - is there more than one set of these characters? Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, Does anybody have a link to or an article that provides descriptions for those goofy characters you seen Heianjo/other group pieces? You know, like these: They don't seem to be kanji (at least none of the tools I have recognize them), they don't look like sanskrit, so what are they? I thought I had seen a table or an article somewhere in the distant past about these, but I can't find it now. Any help appreciated Thanks, rkg (Richard George)

Stephen, no problem - the more the merrier... On the pits, look at the following image - the crazing/surface is lacquer work - the first is down in a pit - its the same stuff as is on the front http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_back_in_pit_1_stop_over.jpg and here's a spot where there's a hole in it - and you can see its lacquer/rust underneath: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/IMG_0033.jpg I'm still trying to figure out how to capture the 3-dimensionality you see through they eyepiece short of jerry rigging my fuji W3 to the stero eyepieces - it seems like if you can see it through one eyepiece, you should be able to capture it with the camera. But I digress This is the kind of thing you see on old surfaces - you've got oxidation of various sorts, lacquer(s), layer(s) of wax (which you have to be careful about removing - sometimes they are very old and deliberately put on), organics from handling, dissimilar metals, and the reactions between the various components of this witch's brew + water in the air etc etc. FWIW, that tannic acid is evil stuff - its mostly a rust converter, so if you put it on an existing patina, your lovely existing iron oxides (both good and bad) turn into iron tannate, and I'm not at all sure it does -anything- to bare metal - back before I knew better I played with it some and followed some directions from the internet - you could put it on bare metal and repeated coatings seemed to create a patina, but you hit it with anything caustic (read:water with a little baking soda in it), and the "patina" vanishes (or at least it did on my experiments). Best, rkg (Richard George) P.S. Oh, and thanks on the images - they are actually kind of hack until i get my normal tosogu station put back together (I injured my back, and I have to put a lot of heavy stuff up on arms, etc so I haven't gotten it done yet...) I'll do better images when that's done...

Christian, Actually, that is actually not exactly true - you see it used on ko kinko stuff sometimes (though arguably it might be binned later - you see them use it alot as a decoration and sometimes apparently as an adjuster...) and you also see Hirata hikozo pieces with this punch mark from new or close to it - there's even one up right now on Fred Wessberg's site... Best, rkg

Christian, I always pay attention to your observations. :-) The microphotographs leave a bit to be desired - I still haven't figured how to capture the 3 dimensionality you see through the eyepiece, but yeah, I believe it is that old - I compared it to a number of other lacquered pieces, etc. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, Here's another recent acquisition. I've been studying this one for a while trying to figure out who might have made it. The seller had it listed as a "higo" piece, but after much study I think (probably) not... The piece is pretty good sized ( 93mm (H) X 92.7mm (W) X 3.05mm (T, nakago ana/seppa dai), 3.81mm (T, max, mimi)), is made from iron with gold nunome in an amida pattern on the back and what the Japanese call “old man’s beard" (series of concentric circles on the front) executed in gold nunome. Some of the nunome is missing, some of it is lacquered over. The “pits” on the back are deliberate, and somebody went to a LOT effort to make them look like corrosion (masterful use of lacquer down in the pits). Same with the “missing” nunome – some isn’t there, some has been rubbed down, some is lacquered over, and some is visible. here's a couple of images: The problem is that I think really have to look hard at the details on the surface on this piece, so here are some larger images as well: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_front_full_size.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_back_full_size.jpg And... the obligatory 360 view sets. Click and drag left and right to rotate the tsuba, and click the + button at the bottom to get a magnifier for use in a particular view: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/shoami_mystery_tsuba_front/shoami_mystery_tsuba_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/shoami_mystery_tsuba_back/shoami_mystery_tsuba_back.html Looking at the surface carefully is very interesting... The maker went to almost a nightmarish level of effort to make this piece much older than it is – and its fairly old to begin with – if you look at the lacquer itself under the microscope, you see the crazing/signs of age – its not to “amalgam stage” (where any corrosion eats the lacquer), and has not developed that brown undertone you see on mid Muromachi and earlier pieces, but it is definitely not a late edo utushi/has some pretty good age to it (note the crazing, gunk,etc in the microscope images) – I would guess its momyama to –maybe- early edo period. Here are some links to microscope images of the surface of the piece: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/IMG_0028.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/IMG_0031_front.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/IMG_0031_front.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/IMG_0033.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/back1.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/back_2.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_tsuba_micro_photos/back_last.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_back_in_pit_1_stop_over.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_back3.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/amida_mystery_tsuba/amida_mystery_fron_thick_lcaquer.jpg The piece has a lot of lacquer on it in at least a couple of layers (or maybe the second layer is a black wax layer –I’m not going to take an alcohol loaded q-tip to it to find out at this time as I think it belongs there...). The condition for the most part is amazing – almost like it has been “juyo prepped” (I hate it when they do that), but you can still see the odd small areas of corrosion here and there so I’d posit not and that its just been not used much and/or has been cared for a really long time…. I actually had to go look at a number of "known old" pieces I own under the microscope to compare to this piece because of the condition. So who made it? Its not signed, so we’ll never know for sure. But after studying all sort of stuff/talking to numerous people, there are two possibilities, kind of depending on the age. If the piece is as old as I think it is, it would probabaly be binned as Ko shoami – the workmanship/the implementation and quality of the nunome/etc is at their “good day” level - Somebody noted that it had an Umetada feel - they were all working in the same place, so maybe one of them got the commission - who knows.... If its later, it was possibly done by Hirata hikozo – the guy almost never worked in iron, but one expert in Japan noted the work is at his level and they had seen works by Hikozo similar to this - where he went nuts with with all kinds of stuff (layers of lacquer/inlay/etc) to create this old tea-tasty effect deliberately - though I'm not sure its organic enough, but what do I know... Enjoy, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, Sometimes tsuba you think wouldn't be interesting actually are. They'll never go Juyo, but... This is a piece I bought not too long ago off of yahoo!Japan. From the mediocre auction pics, the piece looked kind of like saotome work, and the seller claimed that the shiny black inlays were glass. While it looked kind of gnarly, I thought it would be interesting to get and do some imaging testing on. Here's one of the pics from the seller - I do not own this image and it is presented here for educational purposes only: When I got the piece, it turned to be a lot more interesting. The piece measures 91.9 mm(both height and widh) X 4.83mm (T,max) and it weighs 139.6g First off, I believe the base piece is definitely saotome work - you can clearly see weld lines where the place was folded inside of the nakago ana (see 360 image sets below). Second, the "inlays" are definitely not glass. I put it under the microscope and looked - the surfaces appear to be shiny black lacquer with a fair amount of age to them - it doesn't appear to be turning brown like you see with muromachi/earlier period lacquer, but its getting there, so I'd posit it was added in the what, mid edo period? Here's a couple of the microscope images - you can see that it looks like lacquer, and you can also see some of cracks running around most of the filled sukashi - so whatever the sukashi was filled with it is pretty light (I did a density calculation (you have to love regularly shaped items where you can easily assign volume values to all the lumps bumps and bulges...) and whatever is in there is pretty light - definitely not lead or even glass) and would seem to to have a radically different coefficient of expansion relative to iron to get cracking like that.... I think the sukashi/hitsu were done at the same time, and that they are original to the piece, mostly because of the petal design. The saotome group guys made a lot of pieces with some fairly sophisticated design so the tsuba would "dance" in the light (I've posted examples of this before) - in this case side the petals alternates between a convex petal, a sukashi opening, and a concave petal - of course, they all could have been convex and somebody later cut the sukashi and dug out every fourth petal, but... That also makes the original period of manufacture confusing - the kozuka/kogai are kind of a normal shape but they're kind of close to the nakago ana, so maybe the piece was originally Momoyama to early edo period work? I don't know... And the piece has been lacquered overall as well, so a lot of the "gnarly" mottling is actually where the lacquer is gone in pockmarks. Its still a bit gnarly, but it seem to be in the interesting places (where your left thumb would go when prepping to draw (about 10-11 o'clock on the front side), etc. (As an aside, the light colored areas on the back and by the kozuka hitsu on the front seem to be some kind of "guck" - I don't know if its lacquer that ended up fading, some kind of adhesive, or something else, but...) I don't know about when that surface lacquer was put on the piece, but I think the filling of the sukashi and the black lacquer over the fills got added later (but still a long time ago). Anyway, here's a quick front/back side pair of images: And, of course, some 360 image sets - you can kind of see the weld lines in the nakago ana on these, but they're a LOT more visible in different light http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/kiku_black_sukashi/glass_kiku_front/glass_kiku_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/kiku_black_sukashi/glass_kiku_back/glass_kiku_back.html But as usual, my conclusions can be completely full of it, so other observations are appreciated :-) Best, rkg (Richard George)

All tsuba sold - admin, you can move this to the sold section if you want. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Wow... Just out of curiosity, did they reseal the box? Best, rkg (Richard George)

And here's a similar piece that can be yours... The auction is closing tomorrow https://www.sendico.com/yahoo/lot_p538819248.html Best, rkg (Richard George)

Here's another piece I just received (bought it on a lark). Hopefully I'll be healed up enough soon to be able to build up a tosogu shooting rig so I can do some better images of all these pieces I have laying around.... And just so you don't have to go facebook, I'll cross post what I wrote there :-) Here's another new "cheep and cheerful" piece that just showed up. The tsuba measures 71.2mm (H) X 71.1mm (W) X 4.57mm (T, web, nakago ana), 4.32mm (T, web, at mimi), 113.9 grams. The theme is a parasol (kasa, かさ). The tsuba appears to have been made of several horizontal layers, similar to what you see on later yagyu tsuba. I think the mimi was etched while the piece was being made to bring this out. You can still see some "crud" down in the sukashi, as well as evidence that this piece actually has been mounted a couple of times, so my WAG is that this piece is mid (maybe) to late edo period work, and I guess you would put it in the tosho "bin" though if you want to know who made it maybe a better guess would be that it is myochin work (they did a lot of "mokume" pieces later on, and...). The surface is a little concerning. The piece appears to be waxed, which is regularly used by the Tsuba Industrial complex to hide a multitude of sins - I just spent the last several days cleaning up another piece (story omitted), so maybe I'll just enjoy this one as-is for a while. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, Here's a piece I've had sitting around for a while that I -finally- took the time to shoot some images of. The writeup is here: https://www.facebook.com/Kod%C3%B4gu-no-Sekai-%E5%B0%8F%E9%81%93%E5%85%B7%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C-266005023454853/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARDcVCOzSlR40GhfBn6qOh5X5CPt6vHf1sW0UYhU1s6i36IAjgw4YCXunPuSe3PEZoerJAesUr0iT_JG&hc_ref=ARQXF1_al04kSNlbGYDzaQuz_dbbqM4Yi-6yyriT9WBKuLtprPEKegnYmb710A_1quA&fref=nf&__xts__[0]=68.ARCljlpno07UDQMuOf5mCBFUPPe3v1qZ4IXaKhNGiAa7yyRz5-9ph2xLkAe9EHf2DdMlKjFtUfctvcnKOBp5h-JAZMRlpqXowU5ayJ_b5BToT9FnBvE7fjlpblpEDGNXi9ZDrNfv8SnXwi1fuheC9cg3K6125uihRa4qOfY1lS5eVYYjzabFGJd6bFpGHgsuc0cuSb-EwR5IdJVWe9xkOcfz7zIDF6qee7HxtBXlnMSrlrLfTrKu9G6mWY__VjPh4qIYqNBrul6nQjNIlicFHCyoFqBa9GupeKkhTHs1zWIb2L6Ya9sh9E3In5fQTmQ_vGMF8pKiEg8_cY08RKdS8oHc8Q And here's a front shot to see if you even want to visit the Borg er, facebook collective to see the rest of the post, links to the 360 image sets, etc: Merry day-after-Christmas (well, at least it is for me, since the work is over :-) ) rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, I actually had a moment today to take a more careful look at one of the tsuba I recently received. Can anybody make out what this says? I tried enhancing the features, but it didn't help me :-/ And here's the rest of the story - I bid on this piece on a lark and got it when I was snowed under and only just now had more than a minute or two to look at it. I shot a 360 image set of it a few days ago in my flurry of them. here's a pic of the front and back (that I dug out of the 360 image sets - I apologize for the quality - you have to stop waaaay down (well into the diffraction range) when shooting the sets, and..) and the VR image sets themselves and the image sets: http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/new_mystery_tsuba/mystery_tsuba_front/mystery_tsuba_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/new_mystery_tsuba/mystery_tsuba_back/mystery_tsuba_back/mystery_tsuba_back.html The piece measures 73.4mm(H) X 71.1mm(W) X 3.7mm (T, seppa area), ~3.7-3.8mm (t, mimi) The piece looks like they narrowed it from the seppa area to the mimi, upset the mimi back to the original thickness on the mimi - the measurement is approximate as the piece is also slightly wavy on the left and right sides (see VR images), The piece is lacquered (I can't tell if the hitsu plugs were gold washed to start or if they did that thing where they lacquered the high points with gold, put on black lacquer and wiped off some, etc). The lacquer is kind in bad shape on the back on one side (as an aside, I wonder if this piece is something they dug out of a tsunami damaged house or something since the corrosion seems inconsistent with the lacquer condition. But I digress.. the hole at the bottom is lined with silver. I'm guessing its myochin work, but what do I know. Thanks, rkg (RIchard George)

and in case anybody's interested, I just posted some 360 image sets of a small tachi (kodachi?) tsuba I recently got: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1979316208790384&id=266005023454853&__xts__[0]=68.ARAZi0l2I0uWSbWojQit1o_vuq7qXTP1t-jsSFlKlAXWZkp3MSqgmTp6OxlB35II-id92JXCJEDy8Zik4eWomCULJ34k4QBpmHwWVo3erY8yBIdHX-fJ5FWuJcQvMO6HiKqc2idGKw53Gl7Suza4Yj-7092-WwoXfUSBbafRMOoabzRY-5CqKtTdCK6noyYecAJ4lBqepbE5ylXr11GszSJHV2NhBAzOh28tKa-5JcJxZc_ju3mHeHfIhvzFj40x3ZWev8h7F-xfablNwjneWcVzHqhfk54-YeZngaROqEGQABIM6YNLkqmGCtTBHDO1RJLyIrnOpTEoB4uXK8PutJgvcQ&__tn__=-R Gotta run, rkg (Richard George)

And... Tsuba 3 is now on hold as well. Thanks to all who looked. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Tsuba 1 and 2 are now on hold Best, rkg (Richard George)

Interesting - that sure looks like a kozuka ana - I wonder why they chose to display what appears to be the back side of that particular tsuba... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, Since I "had" to shoot a 360 image set of a piece I just posted in the buy/sell section (check 'em out if you got a moment), I took the opportunity to shoot some 360 image sets of a few other pieces that I have piling up to photograph. Here's some 360 image sets of a yoshiro tsuba I got not too long ago. The piece appears to be pretty early (I'm not even sure if it even had a kozuka ana originally - it probably did, but if you look at the back, it seems like there was some decoration that would have been really truncated if a lined kozuka ana was there), and and the surface is in pretty good condition for an early one of these. The piece measures 82.0mm(H) X 81.0mm(W) X ~3,94mm(T), weight 112.7g http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/yoshiro_tsuba/yoshiro_front/yoshiro_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/facebook_stuff/yoshiro_tsuba/yoshiro_back/yoshiro_back.html Since the rest of the studio is set up to shoot swords at the moment (the fixturing for that takes days to set up and not a whole lot less time to strike and change over to tosogu shooting fixturing), I extracted a couple of views and processed them separately - unfortunately the detail isn't as sharp as I'd like (You have to shoot the 360 image sets stopped waaaay down), but hey... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Thanks Ken! Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, Its closet cleaning time again. In case you missed it, here’s a youtube video showing what I’ve got (left) that I’d to get cleared out this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4nHNHGLvh0&t=5s And actually several of these are already spoken for… (as an aside, I’d appreciate comments on what you think of the “cut” style in this video (and yeah, I know a couple aren’t lined up right :-/) – I’m trying to figure out if I like it more than the style I was using) But I digress. Here are the items that are still available. All prices don’t include shipping, which will be at actual cost to wherever you are. If you like a piece and think the price is out of line, feel free to make an offer - maybe we can work something out... I've included a large number of images of each piece. Please look at all the images of any piece you are interested in very carefully and contact me with any questions. Tsuba 1: Ginko drawer pull tsuba $195 Now $145 I posted this one quite a while ago, so let's try it again... This piece measures 70.1mm(H) X 64.1mm (W) X 5.6mm (T, max) Since this isn't what I normally collect, I ended up showing it to Haynes as well. He said this was the work of one of the northern Shoami groups, and that it was a pretty early example of this pattern (early edo or maybe even earlier), but I don't know - I'd just call it Edo period to be conservative... An interesting kantei point (more visible in the VR sets/in hand - the lighting in the front on images accentuates the cross hatching) is that the maker made some effort to close up the areas of crosshatching where the nunome wasn't - this is something the shoami guys often do. I like the 3-dimensionality of how the ginko leaves are done. Full resolution images: http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2017_11/ginko_pull/ginko_pull_front.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2017_11/ginko_pull/ginko_pull_back.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2017_11/ginko_pull/ginko_pull_front_scale.jpg VR image sets: http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2017_11/ginko_pull/ginko_pull_front/ginko_pull_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2017_11/ginko_pull/ginko_pull_back/ginko_pull_back.html Tsuba 2: broken fan theme tsuba. $95 This piece measures: 75.9mm(H) X 75/4mm(W) X 3.94mm(T, seppa area), 4.32mm (T, max) Before I talk about this, here are the full resolution images of the piece as well as some 360 image sets Full resolution images: http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_fan_front.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_back.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_fan_scale.jpg VR image sets: http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_group_front/shoami_shigenobu_group_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/shoami_shigenobu_fan/shoami_shigenobu_group_back/shoami_shigenobu_group_back.html First off, in addition to the traces of gold nunome that can be seen, that is not silver nunome on the piece. These are actually areas where the nunome base has been rubbed and the light makes it look slivery - look at the VR image sets – the patina is still there, but the piece been rubbed a lot so patina is pretty thin on those high points. The original seller claimed this was a ko-shoami tsuba, which I do not believe is correct. There are a couple of possibilities. It was Haynes’s opinion that this was done by somebody associated with the Shoami Shigenobu group, as this was a common theme for them/decoration technique attributed to them. Another possibility is one suggested by Bruce K., that a great number of pieces that are etched like this that aren’t hoan that are currently attributed to a number of artisans and groups were actually done by one group that specialized in etching like this. I’ve talked about this piece before: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1640479786007363&id=266005023454853&__xts__[0]=68.ARDhD1umBjqxu8bO68oTSPzokY_LPVKRNFp9IFPPDWR_LENkkg_e5RibyV0wDbUEuATeSqA_McFmNVe_-7NVo1Z59bOC931q5Xqp_kGqkMsKZFUOIdhi2gT6w5Zw8jGJsipPJfg1UC-_jxXoI1R2sMmBsnMpZ_ccGCLE23tcxMCwt0RhmxBVvqQWXJm4nrmnWlGT-Lt7Rs3dg6oESYwaHA4tiR5pbq2Cf-t-gUJ3Ag4GUmi1MNPoMeoP_MpGyU4Mq5sviFgIp6yD4Rw5akH6Lye-V04-tJW93pfH3EoTlTMqffhCe_BaE4Z3TR_370oWF_kDqjvFjEaqvZuojYaepwQh6z_1NchabA&__tn__=-R http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/24620-ko-shoami-tsuba/?fbclid=IwAR30cf9c9ofWMDrKLb4H5LRrDWXDyQMrt0-i9NgjNtV1Ot2bxmgw21doLFI and last (but certainly not least).... Tsuba 3 Tachishi $795 This piece measures: 74.3mm(H) X 67.1mm(W) X 2.79mm(T, seppa area), 6.86mm (T, max, mimi) This piece is made from brass and I believe the kozuka hitsu is ato bori, and based on the shape I’m guessing it was added in the momyama period. I believe the piece was actually cut from a single piece of brass, though the interface between the web and mimi is so good that I had to look at it for a looong time to figure that out. THis piece has some serious age to it, and I believe it dates from sometime in the muromachi period. The piece has remnants of lacquer on the surface. Haynes concurred with the dating on this piece. (and as an aside, When I was in Japan recently around the time of the DTI, a number of collectors were buzzing about a recently published paper from Kyoto university supposedly presenting evidence that the Japanese were cooking up their own brass far earlier than was previously thought - I haven't had time to track down a copy of the paper yet, but...). The piece comes with the box shown. Full resolution images: http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/tachishi_front.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/tachishi_back.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/tachishi_scale.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/IMG_0019.jpg http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/IMG_0021.jpg VR image sets (shot today, FWIW): http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/brass_tachishi_front/brass_tachishi_front.html http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2018_12/tachishi/brass_tachishi_back/brass_tachishi_back.html

Grev/Bazza Actually, that happens a lot - I know a number of people who have gone through this catharsis/ I wonder if it isn't a rite of passage sometimes. The really unhappy ones are the people that paid bleeding edge prices for their pieces and now find that they 1) want to get rid of most of them, and 2)have to sell them at a small fraction of what they paid... rkg (Richard George)

Grev, I'm not sure there is such a thing as the "best example" of a shoami tsuba, as 1)the artisans binned as shoami were spread individually and in groups far and wide and they made all kinds of pieces, and 2) the groups are a dumping ground for work that can't be easily binned. Second, as to what to cull, that's a tough and actually somewhat subjective question. What one person might think is a "keeper", the next guy won't for whatever reason (personal taste, condition, life experience (if somebody has seen top end examples hand, perhaps none of these would be wanted by that individual), etc etc). And if you just want to apply the 4 "c"s (Composition(design), Construction, Character, and Condition), even that is subjective, as you really need a "bar" to rate everything by - is it relative to the others in the group,or the best examples, or...? (If its the latter, you have to consider the 5th "c" (cost) too...) All that said, the 6 pieces I like the best, huh? Barring seeing a few oblique shots and/or seeing them in hand I'd go with 1a, 7 (I'm biased), 8,21,22, and what, maybe 9? Best, rkg (Richard George)

Grev, FWIW, I tend to leave out only a few pieces at a time so they have more visual impact. even when I'm studying a group I move several of their boxes out of the safe, and then only put a few on stands to ponder. The labeling is good, though I personally also add an image of the piece and any relevant information to the box label as well. Note that 3M makes a photo paper with their post-it note adhesive on the back - its annoying in that there are "stripes" of the adhesive, so you are a little limited on the dimensions (its best to have the adhesive at the ends for example) but other than that its excellent (adhesive won't bugger up box, etc). Here's the paper: https://www.amazon.com/Post-Picture-Paper-Finish-20-Sheet-x/dp/B000DCNWDC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1544118777&sr=8-3&keywords=post+it+photo+paper Best, rkg (Richard George)