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That's a Fudo Myoo bonji

I think i saw the second tsuba (the one in the red box), i'm pretty sure is done by the same tsubashi.

I restored a badly corroded one some time ago

What if it's this guy? NORIKATSU (徳勝), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Hiroshima – “Seiryūshi Minamoto Norikatsu kore o kinsaku” (青龍子源徳勝謹作之), “Minamoto Norikatsu” (源徳勝), real name Nakahara Tokuji (中原徳二), born October 12th 1906, gō Seiryūshi (青龍子), he was basically a self-taught smith, taking the writings of Suishinshi Masahide as a guidline, he also worked as guntō smith (it is said about 180 guntō blades until the end of World War II), ryōkō no jōi (Akihide), Fifth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941) (see picture right)

A little correction, the tsuba won't be exhibited at the museum as there'll be only pieces that actually got prizes, so no Nyusen

The texture is the result of the copper alloy, the patina just bring that out. There's no need of punches if the nakago ana is carefully filed to accomodate a specific nakago. Despite not being a flashy or complex piece is a well made composition and execution, patina also is very nice. Don't be fooled by the simple nature of this piece, to make a tsuba like this is not that easy as it might look.

My thoughts 1. exactly the same since it's a simple sukashi 2. assuming a seppa size of 38mm the tsuba would be 75mm 3. the patina is way to uniform to be burnt, there would also be scales and the fact there's the seppa dai mark is present and clear suggest this wasn't been in the fire or been re-patinated after

NBTHK published the results today, with my big surprise there are a lot of entries in the metal engraving section (the one i was is), and many ranked below me. With Jeff Broderick, who's already a veteran of this contest, i'm the only other foreigner. Under this light i'm even more happy of my result. Here's the results in Japanese2023年度研磨・刀身彫・彫金・白鞘・刀装・柄前・白銀の部　審査結果一覧hp.pdf Here translated in English with Google Translate ENG 2023年度研磨・刀身彫・彫金・白鞘・刀装・柄前・白銀の部　審査結果一覧hp (2).pdf

Thank you, yes I do take commissions, of course my skills are limited to sukashi and simple engraving on iron and copper. I also did some restoration on iron tsuba.

Again, thank you all!

A couple more shots of the tsuba

Thank you all, the design is actually an utsushi of this Akasaka tsuba https://www.touken-w...-guard/art0000971-1/. When i saw it i immediately loved the flow of it and wanted to reproduce it. The results should be published on NBTHK website in a few days, i'll post the results here once they come out. Dimensions are 75x76 mm and 5 mm thick

Thank you Brian!

I'm proud to announce that the tsuba i sent for 2023 NBTHK contest for newly made tsuba got accepted and ranked 7th Nyusen (入選七席). Despite not being an high rank, to me, an amateur italian tsubashi with no teacher that got serious in making tsuba only few years ago, is a huge victory. My tsuba will be shown in the New Sword Exhibition in NBTHK museum, so if you'll have the chance to see it there, i'll be happy to hear it from you. This result encurages me to keep working hard to improve myself and to aim to higher ranks next years. Manuel Coden 古伝

Please move to sold archive or remove

Sold to a member of the board, thanks!

Hold pending payment

Modern tanto made by Minamoto Shigehide, real name Shibuichi Fumi (四分一二三), born September 27th 1912, he signed first with Akishige (昭重) and studied under Satō Akinori (佐藤昭則), gō Musen (夢船). The blade shows a prominent "Norishige style" hada, with predominant masame along the ha resulting in prominent sunagashi and kinsuji in the gunome hamon. The sugata is koto-like with a visible uchizori and bohi on both sides. The mei shows this was made as mamori-gatana, so most likely he put an extra effort to make it well. It's in shirasaya with solid silver habaki. Nagasa 25.2cm　Motohaba 2.36cm Kasane 6.8mm Sori uchizori Mei: 源重秀 Minamoto Shigehide Nengo: 平成二年正月 Heisei 2 the first month (January 1990) 石塚氏代々 For the future generations of Ishizuka (family) Price 1200€ plus shipping and Paypal Please note that buyers from outside EU might face extra costs cause sending blades outside Italy can be troublesome, so i'll need to ship to another EU country in order to export it.

SOLD to a member of the board, thank you

Hold pending payment

Price down to 800€

河内守藤原正広 Kawachi no Kami Fujiwara Masahiro

I do have both digital and physical copies of the first two, the third only physical one. I just checked it, it does show some tsuba and mention "pig iron" in a totally different section, nothing about tsuba made by cast iron. So far no evidence those quotes were accurate

If i recall correctly should be the 1997 version, i think 1968 version is only in Japanese. You can also rule out "The Craft of the Japanese Sword", no reference to tsuba in that book either I should check but also in "The Art of the Japanese Sword: The Craft of Swordmaking and its Appreciation" but i don't recall any reference to tsuba there either. So now it's 3 wrong quotes on 3 books, my guess is that it just takes titles regarding Japanese swords and put the quote you're looking for in it Especially most of those books are not digitalized, so no way chatGPT could have read them

It's ok I can just keep a couple that can have enough material on them and the rest give to you if you really wanna do these tests