C0D

元治之子四月日 Should be "first year of Genji a day of 4th month" (april 1864)

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed my article and tsuba, you have a fine example as well

seems the answer was already here 🙂

Might mean in chinese "Beginning (始) of Zhou (周) Dynasty"
Tho would mean that's a really old guard

It was up for sale before, it's in good conditions and from the same maker, hard to tell if was born as daisho but it's a nice set nonetheless 

Maybe they were shipped to Osaka freshly made and got damaged in the trip 

Seems that school only worked on iron 

Yes, there's another one as well from same school but both have some corrosion problem unfortunately.

Seems that saying about corrosion is real

Thank you, i read somewhere these are quite prone to corrosion, so it's always good to find a well preserved one

9 minutes ago, Infinite_Wisdumb said:

Man that’s a nice Tsuba Manuel!

Indeed it is, in hand is even better cause you can appreciate the precision and depth of the engraving even more

I saw those as well, the Bonhams one someone made a great score.
The second one is badly corroded, last kanji is hardly readable so they made a guess i think, but to me should be the late Edo Tomohisa (same as the published one in my article)

Thank you Dale, i actually know those but i deliberately excluded cause not signed.
Actually i have other signed examples but since the workmanship and subject are the same i thought no need to include those.

Recently i made a research on the subject depicted on the following tsuba made by Yaji Tomoyuki (八道友之) that i currently own, since i thought it was quite interesting what i found i made an article about it.
Feel free to download it and i'd be happy to hear your thoughts about it.

Chōshū Yaji research.pdf

Bishu Osafune ju Sukesada

Tenbun 21 a day in the 8th month

My guess seeing the oxidation and the construction is that probably comes from a statue

Interesting concept and execution, among fittings i saw only menuki depicting tsuba before

5 minutes ago, DTM72 said:

When I try to copy and paste the one I want, it reverts to the normal 正 version.

Because that writing is just the cursive for the same kanji

https://markussesko.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nihontocompendium-e1.pdf
Courtesy of Markus Sesko

On 6/28/2022 at 7:52 PM, AntiquarianCat said:

I’m not commenting on this sword but I’m curious about microwelding in general. Would they be using the new laser techniques that could weld say hagire while sparing the rest of the Hamon?

 

So long as it’s well disclosed I wouldn’t see the harm in helping a fatally flawed sword regain some of its dignity. Of course if it was done for kitaeware or some other non ruinous flaw it’s obviously foolish, but I still think it could help blades with nothing to lose.

Is been done before, read "episode 11"

Ichi Tomonari gojūroku-daison Bizen Osafune-shi – Yokoyama Kaga no Suke Fujiwara Sukenaga saku
(一友成五十六代孫備前長船士・横山加賀介藤原祐永作)

I have some extra i can share and since i'm in the EU you won't have customs fees

More than Gassan this looks more like Shitahara, also nakago shape would fit

i read 一風子 (Ippushi? child of Ippu?) can't find any artist with that name, the only similar is 一風 "Ippu"

15 minutes ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

A tanto stating Masamune's technique was used: https://www.aoijapan.com/tantoosaka-ju-gassan-sadakatsu-kinsakukao/

 

 

 

It doesn't say anything about Soshu or Masamune anywhere, on the hakogaki it actually says "Awataguchi" 粟田口

From the research i did online for a name with those specific kanji they all turn out as Yoshimasa, so i'm quite confident that would be it

The most likely pronunciation of 祥正 i think would be "Yoshimasa"